It was always going
to be tough, if not downright impossible for Ibrahim Galadima to emerge
at the end of last Wednesday’s congress of the Confederation of African
Football (CAF) with one of the two tickets into the highly revered
executive committee of football’s world governing body, FIFA.
Foremost among the
reasons why the former boss of the Nigerian FA didn’t get to secure one
of the two FIFA positions up for grabs in Khartoum, Sudan was the fact
that he was going up against opponents with a far greater influence
within CAF.
There was South
Africa’s Danny Jordaan who was head of the local organising committee
for last year’s FIFA World Cup in the rainbow nation; the first to be
held in an African country. There was also Suketu Patel who is currently
the head of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations
(COSAFA), as well as the duo of Algeria’s Mohammed Raouraoua and Cote
d’Ivoire’s Jacques Anouma, two of the continent’s most experienced
football administrators.
Even Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya, a former recipient of the African Footballer of the Year award,
was at some point in
the hunt for one of the FIFA seats but tactically pulled out of the
race to concentrate on a spot in the CAF executive committee – the
continental body’s topmost decision-making organ.
Also, anyone with
some measure of knowledge about affairs relating to the continent’s
football body will be quite aware of the fact that CAF under current
boss Issa Hayatou, who has been at the helm of affairs since 1987, is a
close-knit organisation with a top echelon consisting mostly of
individuals who have been in the organisation for at least a decade.
Little wonder why at
the end of the day Algeria’s football federation president, Mohamed
Raouraoua and his counterpart from Cote d’Ivoire Jacques Anouma grabbed
with relative ease the FIFA positions on offer with 39 and 35 votes
respectively; far ahead of their closest rival Suketu Patel of
Seychelles who polled 15 votes.
The Mafia
In fact, the
organisation with headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, is regarded by most
football followers in Africa as a mafia of sorts similar to the infamous
reputation of its supervisory body in Zurich, Switzerland, FIFA.
Lending credence to
this was the failure of South Africa’s Jordaan in Sudan where he polled
only 10 votes, five more than Nigeria’s Galadima which came as a shock
to many.
Shocking because
Jordaan was viewed as one who could help restore the continental body’s
battered image following the three-year ban clamped on Nigeria’s Amos
Adamu by FIFA after he was caught on video in a Sunday Times newspaper
sting operation admitting he could accept cash payment in return for his
votes in the race to host the 2018 World Cup finals, which
automatically led to Adamu’s vacation of his position in the world
body’s executive committee.
When Jordaan decided
to battle for a place on the all-powerful FIFA executive committee, he
must have believed that the entire continent – hopefully still in love
with him after organising the 2010 World Cup – was on his side.
But in Khartoum, the
South African got a taste of the bitter pill of African football
politics that showed once again that the continent’s favourite game is
still in the hands of a select few consisting of officials from North
and West Africa led by the Cameroonian Hayatou, a close ally of Adamu as
well as the duo of Raouraoua and Anouma.
This was probably
why Algeria was rewarded with the hosting rights for the 2009 African
Youth Championships finals, and Cote d’Ivoire given the hosting rights
for the debut edition of the African Nations Championships, also in 2009
even though the west African country was still trapped in a civil war.
Jordaan, unlike
Raouraoua and Anouma, was not a member of the decision-making organ of
CAF. This was also the case with Galadima.
But by far, the
biggest reason why Galadima was always going to be unsuccessful in his
quest to secure one of the two available seats on FIFA’s executive
committee was the failure of Nigeria’s sports establishment to commence
lobbying would-be voters in time.
While other
candidates had long ago, with a couple of them as far back as the past
two years, commenced the business of lobbying, Galadima’s camp, led by
the country’s sports minister, Taoheed Adedoja didn’t set about with
these task until a few days to the commencement of the congress.
Even more ironic is the fact that this came a few weeks after he reportedly urged Galadima to give up his FIFA aspirations.
This was in the
aftermath of Adamu’s decision to contest his initial suspension by
FIFA’s disciplinary committee which later culminated in the three-year
ban by the world body; a decision which Adamu is currently appealing at
the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
Doublespeak
“What the minister
and the NFA should have done is to ask Adamu to withdraw since they have
nominated Galadima,” said former board member of the Nigeria Premier
League, Raymond Nnaji in an interview with a Nigerian website.
“This they did not
do, instead they said that Galadima was on standby as if the seat was
reserved for Nigeria. Everybody knows that they never supported
Galadima; that they were for Adamu. They should go and hide their faces
in shame,” added Nnaji who also stated that both the minister and the
football body should be made to refund tax payers’ money that was
expended in Sudan.
It was an opinion
that concurred with those of former Gombe FA boss, Ahmed Gara-Gombe who
blamed the sports ministry along with the National Sports Commission
(NSC) for not prevailing on Adamu to withdraw his appeal from the CAS
which led to a delay in the commencement of Galadima’s campaign.
“It was always going
to be a futile exercise as valuable time had long been lost,” he said.
“One minute some people are declaring support for Galadima only for them
to reverse their decision the following minute and throw their weight
behind Adamu.
“For me, it was just
a waste of resources because it was obvious to many from the start that
he (Galadima) didn’t stand a chance against those he was going up
against.” Although Adedoja was to later retract the statements credited
to him in the media regarding his perceived doublespeak, claiming he was
quoted out of context, he and other members of the Galadima Campaign
Delegation, as they became officially known, still tarried with the task
of getting down to business; a task they even admitted to being
difficult from the outset.
At least that was
the opinion aired in a letter sent by the Galadima group out there in
Sudan to Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister Odein Ajumogobia on February
21, three days before the election.
Besides stating the
obvious that “campaigning for the FIFA seat is a more arduous task” than
getting Galadima into the CAF executive committee, the group admitted
that they did not commence their campaign in time.
They also admitted
that “it would be a tall order to get two countries from the same region
back on the FIFA team” especially as Adamu and Anouma, who got into
FIFA at the same time were both from the West African sub-region.
Notwithstanding the
odds that stood on their path, the group stated that “a successful
Nigerian bid for the FIFA Executive Committee seat is still considered
achievable. It would however, require a last minute vigorous campaign,
complemented by contacts at the highest level of government to CAF
member states in support of our candidature.” The letter added: “It is
the view of the delegation that overtures made at the highest level of
government to the countries listed below in the following regional order
would go a long way towards facilitating this electoral victory.”
Amongst the countries listed in the letter were Benin, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Chad, Gambia, Cape
Verde, Mali and Guinea Bissau.
Others were Gabon,
Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea,
Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius,
Mozambique and Lesotho.
Such a move was
however always going to be difficult, if not impossible, especially
considering the short time frame between Monday’s receipt of the
‘urgent’ letter from Sudan and Wednesday’s election.
Government’s fault
Little wonder
individuals like Ayo Ositelu, a veteran sports commentator, is blaming
the government for Galadima’s failure, saying that government did not
act swiftly to ensure that he clinched the position.
“Our quest to
reclaim the FIFA and CAF executive seat suffered a setback because we
did not give Ibrahim Galadima enough support,” he said. “We were not
decisive enough and did not take the necessary steps needed to aspire
for a position at the highest level of football administration. He
added. But has Nigeria gained any benefit from having her nationals in
the top hierarchy of both FIFA and CAF?
“There are huge
benefits especially if the person commands respect within the
organisation but in our case, the benefits have been relatively
insignificant as we have not hosted any of the big tournaments of FIFA
or CAF,” continued Gara-Gombe.
Reminded that
Nigeria had during Adamu’s time in FIFA and CAF hosted the African
Women’s Championship as well as the FIFA Under 17 World Cup, he
retorted: “Those are small tournaments. Outside Africa, the Under 17
World Cup is seen as nothing but a small tournament. He added. “It is
only there for the purpose of developing little boys for the future
while the AWC, as far as I am concerned, is a waste of tax-payers’
money. They are nothing compared to the Nations Cup or the World Cup.
“What people fail to realise is that these people get into these
organisations not just for their country’s benefit but also for their
own personal gain. So there is no guarantee that even if we do get
someone into CAF by the time of the next election that the situation
will improve.” Gara-Gombe might be right about that but only time will
tell if Nigerian football will fare better in the coming years following
Galadima’s failure in Sudan
