Decommarmond happy with Caf’s new election laws-Football |05 September 2012

This was during Monday’s 8th extraordinary Caf’s general assembly at the Ephelia resort in Port Launay.

Voted in a landslide, the proposal says that anyone outside the Caf executive committee should not contest the organisation's presidency.

The new law says all candidates for election to the presidency of Caf, in addition to necessary competence, must be or have been a member of the executive committee of Caf.

Forty-four nations voted for the amendment, while six voted against and there was one abstention.

Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) chairman Joel Decommarmond, said it’s a win and the region is happy with the decision.

 “We are happy with this decision,” Mr Decommarmond told Sports Nation yesterday.
“Representatives of the Cosafa (Council of Southern Africa Football Associations) met on the eve of the extraordinary congress and were unanimous that we would support the new amendments.

“It’s a good thing for us (Seychelles) and the region as we have two Cosafa members – Seychellois Suketu Patel and Zambian Kalusha Bwalya – on the Caf executive committee.

 We are also in the process of co-opting a third member,” added Mr Decommarmond who was voted SFF chairman earlier this year after Mr Patel stepped down.

As a result of the law which is seen as controversial by a minority of countries, Ivory Coast Football Association former president Jacques Anouma and South Africa's 2010 World Cup chief Danny Jordaan cannot run for the post of Caf president.

Anouma is a member of the Fifa (Fédération internationale de Football Association) executive committee which qualifies him to be an ex-officio member of Caf's executive committee.

 Although he can take part in all the deliberations, he does have voting rights.

Anouma was expected to be one of the top challengers for incumbent president Issa Hayatou who is likely to seek another term next March. He has been Caf’s boss since 1987.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Ivory Coast sports minister Philippe Legre described the amendment as a “political ruse.”

Senegal Football Federation president August Senghor charged that it was a setback for democracy if the new law was adopted, while former Cameroon international goalkeeper Joseph Antoine Bell said it was “misleading and a shame”.

Mr Hayatou, whose mandate will expire in 2013, noted that “if the majority of all the members want me to remain at the helm like it happened two years ago in Sudan, I will bow to their decision.”
 
“I cannot support leaving them all of a sudden after a 20-year leadership”, he added.
 
He, however, revealed that his personal wish was to “turn the page over Caf, stressing that if “Caf members offer me the opportunity to decide, I will leave because I want to retire and I have made this known in the past”.

Hayatou, 67, is allowed to run for another mandate since Africa’s football governing body’s laws set the age limit at 70 years for an aspirant.

G. G.