Presidents Augustin Senghor of the Senegalese Football Federation and his counterpart Ahmed Yahya of the Mauritanian Football Federation have joined the race for the CAF presidency.
This comes barely 24hours after South African Billionaire and president of Mamelodi Sundowns Patrice Motsepe also indicated interest in the race to the election due March 2021.
Augustin Senghor and Ahmed Yahya’s declaration to enter the race takes the number of candidates for the highest football office on the African continent to five.
The deadline for submission of documents for the CAF’s top job is due Thursday, November 12, 2020 and the expectations are high that there will be changes in the current list of candidates before deadline day.
The elections are pencilled for March 2021 in Morocco and the incumbent Ahmad Ahmad who replaced long-serving Issa Hayatou in 2017 looks to be in serious competition to retain his place if he remains in the contest till election day.
In what marks the end of the four-year term of Ahmad Ahmad, the CAF exco committee and FIFA Council, Motsepe and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast are the other two Candidates who have submitted for the upcoming elections.
Motsepe decision yesterday raised to three the number of candidates for the top job in African football with incumbent Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar and Jacques Anouma from the Ivory Coast also in the race.
Jacques Anouma, who was prevented from bidding for the CAF presidency in 2013 when a Hayatou-inspired move lead to a rule change that barred the Ivorian, announced his candidacy at the weekend.
South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe will contest the Confederation of African Football presidency election next March, the South African Football Association (SAFA) announced Monday.
Motsepe became wealthy through various mining deals.He owns Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns, who have been among the top 10 clubs in Africa for some years and completed a South African treble last season.
“He is the most appropriate person we could offer for the leadership of CAF. We do not want any compromise on governance or ethics in football,” said CAF third vice-president Danny Jordaan.
The presidents of the Nigerian and Sierra Leone football associations, Amaju Pinnick and Isha Johansen, were in Johannesburg for the announcement.
Pinnick, who hinted last month that he might contest the presidency, confirmed he is not a contender and will back Motsepe instead.
A former CAF vice-president, Amaju Pinnick was fired by Ahmad Ahmad after disagreements over the direction the Cairo-based CAF was taking.
Ahmad said last month that he would seek a second four-year term after ending the 29-year reign of Cameroonian Issa Hayatou with a stunning 34 votes to 20 triumph three years ago.
