South African billionaire Motsepe elected African football chief

South African Patrice Motsepe was on Friday elected president of the African football confederation (CAF) by acclamation in Rabat, Morocco.

The mining business billionaire was the sole candidate, after three others withdrew this week in a deal brokered by the president of the ruling body FIFA, Gianni Infantino, who was also present on Friday.

Under the agreement, Augustin Senghor of Senegal, Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast will be part of Motsepe’s team.

Motsepe is the brother-in-law of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the first Black African to make Forbes’ list of billionaires.

FIFA took over CAF affairs in 2019 and the body was run by its secretary general Fatma Samoura of Senegal for a while in connection with financial problems and irregularities under past president Ahmad Ahmad.

Ahmad was elected in 2017 and is a former FIFA vice-president. He was banned by FIFA from football over financial misconduct and not allowed to stand for re-election, with the ban reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this week.

Source: GNA