An Awards Charade: CAF Mafia @ Their Best

At their controversial best, the body charged to oversee the running of
football on the continent, Confederation of African Football (CAF), has yet
again stirred perhaps the biggest controversy in its history.



Not entirely unexpected as it has
been the stock-in-trade of CAF over the years to award relative outsiders to
the award citing funny reasons, one such being the physical presence of a
player at the ceremony as basis to be named winner in any year.



And so possibly the most controversial football announcement of year
2010 as I see it, was not that Russia and Qatar were billed to host World
Cups 2018 and 2022 respectively, neither was it the ban on all football-related
activities in Ghana – following the raid of the offices of the GFA by the
Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) recently - or the Abedi Pele CAF
post-saga.



Rather it was as perpetrated by CAF and its President, Issa Hayotou,
when against all odds and in the face of clear evidence to the contrary, they
named with glee and facetious disgust his fellow country man, Samuel Eto’o Fils
of Cameroon and Inter Milan fame as CAF’s African Player of the Year 2010.



If the saying goes thus, “With God all things are possible,” on
the back of the Almighty’s Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience, I state
along same lines that when it comes to African football awards at least, “With CAF,
all things are possible,” What!



Let me first dissociate myself
from any perceptions as might be created of presenting an argument laden with
emotions and to that extent, on grounds of being Ghanaian and as such having
vested interest in the triumph of a fellow contender - Asamoah Gyan (alias “Baby
Jet”).



SHAME UNTO CAF? THEY’VE GOT NO SHAME

In his article “Shame unto CAF if …,” published online
and in The New Weekend Crusading GUIDE
of December 17, 2010, Lewis Neneyewode Numekevor, having done a comparative
analysis of the three contenders, had concluded to some extent that Gyan was
the man to beat.



Perhaps forgetting that as CAF
had stated on countless occasions, the award in question is voted for by
respective national team coaches of the 52 member nations affiliated to it;
that is after the shortlisting of prospective winners had been chosen and
pruned to three by its Technical Group.



By repeating who knows for the
umpteenth time what all three players brought to the table would be like
flogging an old horse, the broad analysis over the year in review as was
measured by pundits was player performance at club and national team levels.



By the naming of Samuel Eto’o for
the fourth time as winner, I draw two straightforward conclusions;



1. AN AFRICAN LOSS, EUROPEAN VICTORY

Gyan’s credentials as a contender
were strongly rooted in his commitment to the National side comparative to the
Eto’o story last season. Do I need to state that it was this Gyan guy who
enchanted soccer lovers in January and July during two major competitions here
in Africa?



I will dare say that for the benefit of analysis, in January Gyan was
key in the Black Stars set-up that reached the final of the Cup of Nations in
Angola and was even more integral as Africa lost out on a historic feat
regrettably at his feet at the World Cup in South Africa, Where was Monsieur
Eto’o, I ask?



With his flatter to deceive form
when it came to the Cup of Nations and World Cup, Eto’o undoubtedly had a
terrific season in Europe as he aided his
Inter Milan side to an unprecedented treble. That was and is the entire award
winning episode as acted out by Samuel Eto’o.



Football on the continent, ably
represented by the “Baby Jet” had
been trampled upon and left in the cold as European football, symbolized by
Eto’o, stood as winner as has been the case over the time that CAF took over
the awards ceremony from the French football magazine.



2. AFRICAN COACHES LOVE EURO FOOTBALL?

Perhaps with a heavy dose of
European based players lining up for most national teams across the continent,
most African coaches – ironically majority of whom are expatriates – were most
likely busily globetrotting to identify new talents whiles keeping taps on old
players.



Whiles at that, I guess these
managers fell in love with European football, consequent to which majority of
them voted rather for a player whose exploits were more visible across the
oceans than of another who did all things right on the African continent.



This is in no way to question the
independent thinking of coaches who cast their votes in favour of Eto’o, yet
really and truly, this award has created, as many others in the past have, some
hullabaloo that CAF alone does not perceive let alone see or hear.



CAF vs. BBC

The British Broadcasting
Corporation’s (BBC’s) African Player
of the Year voted for by fans across the continent and one that is announced a
few days before CAF does, seems to be a thorny spot as perhaps, CAF wants to
assert some authority and not just go along with the BBC award.



The perception of a deep-seated
politics allied with a CAF mafia has over the years been fuelled when awards
have been given to candidates seen as second fiddle; it further feeds into the
very curious manner in which players of francophone Africa
have been picking up the award since 2000.



The BBC’s role in all of this being that, coming from a position where
the global broadcaster has been in the thick leveling of accusation against
massive corruption against Federation Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) and CAF officials, CAF I reckon, will not want to rubber stamp a BBC position
and perhaps vice versa.



GYAN: A WINNER IN HIS OWN RIGHT

CAF may have succeeded in making the world believe that Asamoah Gyan
did not deserve the accolade at least as the number one African player but
truth is; many footballers, managers, pundits and soccer fans the world over I
believe, know all too well that Gyan had done all things possible but CAF has
ruled and who are we?



African Football undoubtedly is
as always - controversy laden and never bereft of the politics and mafia
element which had transcended from the continental level to local football
federations as they (local FAs) slug it out with state institutions to assert
some independence, despite their dependence on public funds. Interesting times
ahead.



© Shaban Barani Alpha (The New Crusading GUIDE)

E-mail: alfarsenal@yahoo.com/
newcguide@gmail.com