In Africa, not everyone is happy with the election of South African Patrice Motsepe as president of the African Football Confederation (CAF). Last Friday, during a CAF general meeting in Rabat, the South African billionaire benefited from the withdrawal of three West African candidates in his favor. But for Senegalese Abdoulaye Thiam, editor-in-chief of the “Sud Quotidien” and chairman of the Senegalese sports press association, politics and money take precedence over football. He answers questions from Christophe Boisbouvier.
RFI: Why did Patrice Motsépé win??
Abdoulaye Thiam: It is Patrice Motsépé who won for the good and simple reason that it is the candidate for Gianni Infantino. The second thing is because the other challengers under the Rabat Protocol decided to withdraw their candidacy. I will name Master Augustin Senghor [du Sénégal], Jacques Anouma from Côte d’Ivoire and Ahmed Yahya from Mauritania.
But on polling day, Friday 12 March in Rabat, your patriot Augustin Senghor looked sad …
Sad? I did not want to know how to say it. In any case, the disappointment for many Senegalese was very great. And it is not just the Senegalese, there are also many Africans who counted on Augustin Senghor to get the African Union back on track. But as we know very well, it was not enough to have intellectual and moral probability, to have a certain competence. There was diplomacy, geostrategy, geopolitics invited to this election, and who did it today, it is Patrice Motsépé who was finally brought to the head of this confederation.
When you talk about “geopolitics“, Do you think about the influence of the President of the International Football Association (Fifa), Gianni Infantino?
Yes, for this election, no one dares to say that he did not see the implication, the interference of the President of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, himself: he crossed many African countries, he campaigned for Patrice Motsépé. But beyond Gianni Infantino, I can mention, for example, this unnatural alliance that no one can understand between South Africa and Morocco. Everyone still remembers South Africa’s withdrawal during CAN Futsal, which was to take place in Laayoune in Western Sahara. It is a very complex issue where many African heads of state are very careful not to frustrate Moroccans. But the South Africans were the first to say they did not go 15 days before the competition. But in the end, the Moroccans agreed to line up behind Fifa, behind Patrice Motsépé!
Behind this agreement may be a secret agreement between President Cyril Ramaphosa and the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI?
I do not want to go that far. What is clear today, however, is that African heads of state have played a very large role. We talked about Kigali with Paul Kagame, who chose Patrice Motsépé for a very long time. People also remember Gianni Infantino’s trips to Brazzaville and DR Congo, he was received by the current President of the Office of the African Union, who happens to be [Félix] Tshisekedi; there is also the agreement between Patrice Motsépé and his friend Moïse Katumbi [le président du club congolais tout puissant Mazembé]. To tell you simply that there was geopolitics that meant today that in the end we might not choose the candidate that everyone hoped to be the best. Politics and geostrategy necessarily take precedence over the election of Augustin Senghor.
And during his last trip to West Africa, Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, was received by the Senegalese Macky Sall and the Guinean Alpha Condé, no?
Yes. Again, everyone wondered. In the 21st century, where we thought we would really live completely from our independence, especially in football, but there is a Swiss who comes to Africa only to be received with honor, and who dictates who effectively lead our confederation. It’s sad because we will never see people like Gianni Infantino on a par with UEFA, the European Union. We will not see it on the level of Concacaf, which is the South American federation. It is not possible.
And why do Gianni Infantino and Fifa have so much power over African federations? It’s just about money?
Yes, it is a question of money, because in Africa they must also be raised: we do not have the means to achieve our ambitions. Today, the organization of an African Cup of Nations with 24 teams except North Africa, North Africa and South Africa, as we speak, there is no country south of the Sahara that is able to organize such an African Cup of 24. In fact, we say at home in Wolof, “whoever looks at you will inevitably tell you where to look”.
Who pays, orders …
Who pays, orders. Exactly.
Is not this audience of Gianni Infantino among several African heads of state also a proof that politics intervenes in football and that it is ultimately at every step the President of the Republic? That tells the association what to do?
Precisely because sports, especially football, are run by the states. It is the states that have stadiums, it is the states that maintain the national teams, the federations are not economically autonomous.
We can feel your disappointment. Can Patrice Motsépé be a bad president of CAF?
None. I dare just hope for what he has achieved with Mamelodi Sundowns [le club sud-africain dont il est propriétaire] and also in business I hope he can succeed at the level of the African Football Federation.
But he knows the foot bone?
He does not know football like Augustin Senghor, like Jacques Anouma, like Ahmed Yahya. Moreover, he was not even interested in the presidency of the African Football Confederation. It was Gianni Infantino who went after him.
Because of the money behind him, that’s it?
It must be because of the money. I think he is very well surrounded. We can really hope that within four years the African Football Confederation can regain its former glory and that we can not just live under Fifa’s guidance, as was the case in the last four years with Ahmad. [Ahmad].
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