Motsepe victory is continental: HaikaliMosengo-Omba takes Caf position The Confederation of African Football will be steered by two Southern Africans, with one serving as president and another as sectary-general. JESSE JACKSON KAURAISAWINDHOEK
Namibia Football Association (NFA) president Ranga Haikali says South African Patrice Mostepe’s election as Confederation of African Football (Caf) president must not be seen in isolation.
Haikali said this during the 43rd CAF Congress, which saw the election of the new president and executive members.
Expectations are that Namibian football will benefit from Motsepe’s election.
The NFA president stressed the importance of unity in African football, stating that he expects Motsepe to be a president of all football nations in Africa and not specific ones.
“I refer you to Motsepe’s 10-point plan and look at it from Africa as a continent and Cosafa as a region and not as an NFA victory in isolation.
“There is promise by president Motsepe to visit all the member countries and engage on the development needs,” Haikali said.
South not powerful
The NFA president expressed dismay over the fact that Southern Africa did not reach consensus as far as filling other positions was concerned.
“It’s a pity that Southern Africa couldn’t reach consensus to field only one or two candidates for the number of vacant positions.
“This means that you are leaving your fate as a region open to other regions.”
Mosengo-Omba appointed
Former chief officer of the FIFA member associations (MAs) division, Véron Mosengo-Omba, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was appointed as secretary-general of CAF.
Mosengo-Omba initially joined FIFA in 2016 as chief member associations officer with responsibility for Africa and the Caribbean.
He then went on to spend 2019 and 2020 all supporting all FIFA member associations to implement the FIFA Forward development programme.
He also managed relationships with all FIFA MAs and continental confederations in his role as chief officer of the division.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino and FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura released a statement congratulating the Congolese on his appointment.
“On behalf of all of FIFA, we would like to thank Véron Mosengo-Omba for his excellent work and wish him the very best of luck in his next challenge as CAF general secretary," the statement reads.
Exco members
Mathurin de Chacus (Benin), Isha Johansen (Sierra Leone), Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco), Amaju Pinnick (Nigeria) and Mamoutou Touré (Mali) will all join Hany Abo Rida (Egypt) on FIFA’s council, while Kanizat Ibrahim (Comoros) and Mbombo Njoya (Cameroon) were elected to the CAF executive committee.
Other regional appointments were also made, with Wadie Jary (Tunisia) elected to the northern zone and Elvis Raja Chetty (Seychelles) and Maclean Letshwiti (Botswana) both elected to represent the southern zone.