Why Africa is panicking over Fifa’s Infantino

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr. Gianni Infantino, for winning the historic FIFA elections, yeah historic because it still feels somewhat weird to think of a FIFA president than Sepp Blatter.

It was a huge surprise here in Africa especially since CAF made most of us understand that Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa was the right man to take up the mantle of leadership from Sepp Blatter.

You have done well and my hope is that you are able to reinstate confidence and repair the damaged integrity of our beloved game.

One of the scandalous sentences that even hurt me was when Ex-Portugal and Ex-Real Madrid star Luis Figo said, “when you Google FIFA what comes out is corruption”.

I am very certain that most of the various Association Presidents here in Africa are still recovering from the shock that you pulled off in Zurich by winning the elections.

But my sincere opinion is that I think that having you as President of FIFA could be a blessing for the continent of Africa. You have proven during your time as General Secretary of UEFA that your ultimate interest lies in the overall development of the game.

I admit that Blatter held a strong influence here in Africa and rightfully so because he did a lot for this continent.

His ideas and love for Africa inadvertently turned out to be counterproductive. The presidents of our federations became lazy.

They relied on the monies he provided yearly and refused to think outside the box to improve the game in their various countries. Going by what I have seen in your first few days in office and your track record from UEFA, I think they will be compelled to think outside the box.

The Blatter factor and Africa

At the mention of Sepp Blatter’s reign as FIFA boss, what comes to mind apart from the numerous corruption scandals is his love affair with African football.

I was not surprised when most FA Presidents in Africa mourned his sad departure from football.

I am aware that majority of you reading this piece will wonder what at all brought the special romance between Blatter and heads of African football?

Under his reign, he helped to reduce the “Eurocentric” nature of FIFA. First of all, the number of African representatives at the World Cup increased from two to five after his election as FIFA President in 1998.

As a result of this, minnows like Senegal, Togo and Angola, have been able to feature at the World Cup over the years. We remember how the Teranga Lions of Senegal caused a huge surprise when they beat the then World Champions, France. by a lone goal on their way to the quarter finals in 2002.

Thanks to the increased slots, World Cup Qualifiers in Africa are not as rigorous and tension-packed like they were when the entire continent had to scramble for two World Cup places.

The FIFA Goal Project



Another benefit the African continent and developing counties as a whole, gained during Blatter’s reign was the FIFA Goal Project.

I am sure the next question will be what is the FIFA Goal Project?

The goal project is a FIFA programme which started in 1999, a year after Blatter was voted FIFA boss. The project is aimed at supporting the growth of member associations by providing them, when needed, with the resources to jumpstart their development by implementing key football projects.

Since its inception, numerous football associations have been provided with state-of-the-art headquarters and here in my country Ghana, our football association’s headquarters is testament of the project.

There has also been development of artificial pitches, not forgetting the various seminars and football clinics which FIFA has organized under Blatter to educate people about the game.

This has helped many countries with no or limited resources provided by their central government for football, to, at least, catch up with the more developed countries.

First World Cup in Africa



But none of these aforementioned projects are bigger than his initiative of rotating the World Cup around the various continents.

Since the inception of the FIFA World Cup, the hosting rights had been seen as the preserve of Europe and the Americas but Blatter helped to change that perception.

In 2010, Africa got to host its first FIFA World Cup and the tournament took place in South Africa.

This essentially left the various football associations in Africa in Blatter’s debt. The depiction came out fully in 2002 when the Swiss man beat CAF’s Issa Hayatou in the 2002 FIFA Elections.

Losing a man like him is obviously a big blow to African football heads but their indebtedness is not as strong as we all would like to believe and I will explain.

Former Zambia FA Chief Simataa Simataa said in an interview with the BBC that

“A lot of things have been done using FIFA money and in Africa the perception is that it’s Sepp Blatter’s money”.

“But this should be done anyway, whether Mr. Blatter is there or not.”

Weaknesses in Blatter’s policies



Total development of football in deprived countries goes beyond just giving the countries money. If your constitutions, rules and ethics are weak, you will not get the full effect of the project you put out and regrettably under Blatter, these three key factors in development of football in Africa were poor.

Having mentioned these key weaknesses that allowed corruption to eat into the fibre of the various federations in Africa, what does Infantino becoming FIFA President mean?

The fear of Infantino

1. Will he be as good as Blatter when it comes to football development in Africa?

2. Will he victimize Africa because they professed their support for one of his rivals during the elections?

Let me attempt to answer these questions below

For starters, the thought that Gianno Infantino will be unfavourable to Africa because it openly declared its support for his rival is even childish.

Being a FIFA president does not mean the federation is your personal property. You do not become lord and emperor of all football land.

These unnecessary fears can be likened to an ancient powerful man conquering a kingdom and one group of people fearing to live under his reigns because they fought against him during his conquest.

The projects Africa enjoyed during Blatter’s time were not rolled from his own largesse. Not at all.

The goal projects were for FIFA and not for Blatter and so they would still be implemented with or without Blatter.

So various Presidents across the continents should remain calm and be assured that once it is a project vetoed by FIFA, it will be rolled out.

In fact, one of Gianni’s campaign promises was that, he would more than double development money dispensed to FIFA’s 207 federations to $5 million over four years.

This means, more money to the members of FIFA for football development and that includes the federations in Africa.

“It’s your money, not the money of the FIFA president,” he told the delegates ahead of the elections.

“The money of FIFA has to be used to develop football and that will be one of my main aims if I become President,” he concluded

Reforms that will help check corruption in federations:

The new era of FIFA will see reforms such as terms limit for the presidency and public declarations of salaries and this will trickle down to the various regional Associations.

One of Africa’s problems in terms of its football is how Issa Hayatou has turned the CAF presidency into a monarchy due to the absence of specific term limits.

What these reforms mean is that, we can put away fears of having another Hayatou when the original one finally bows out.

The transparency on salaries and other financial benefits will be welcomed if and only if it is not the usual lip service.

Heads of football federations in Africa have benefited from the lack of transparency in football for far too long to the disadvantage of football fans on the continent.

If FIFA will be transparent and see to it that it members follow suit, then African football will win.

One of the reasons CAF opted to go with Bahrain’s Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa as FIFA president attests to the fact they wanted a pro-Blatter person; someone who they could run to for cover in the face of scrutiny from governments in their various countries. Under Sepp Blatter, this was the get-out-of-jail card and it was always easy to draw when the heat was on.

I pray that Gianni Infantino will not be another protective father to the national federations.

Infantino’s election as FIFA President may not mean anything to African football on the pitch because everything is about the federation’s policies and not the President.

But his election means something to the people who run African football. Their ‘sugar daddy’ Mr. Blatter, is no more in charge.