Integrity Checks for Jordaan, Four Others Vying for FIFA Council Seat

The five candidates for the vacant African seat on the FIFA Council are undergoing integrity checks by world football’s governing body before their participation in next month’s poll is confirmed.

The seat of ex-Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Kwesi Nyantakyi will be filled at a specially convened Confederation of African Football (CAF) Congress in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday, September 30.

CAF confirmed that five candidates have been nominated but must go through a vetting process by FIFA before being allowed to stand.

They are:

Elvis Chetty, president of the Seychelles Football Association
South African Football Association President Danny Jordaan, who withdrew from two previous FIFA executive committee seat races
Moses Hassim Magogo, president of the Federation of Uganda Football Associations
Walter Nyamilandu, long-serving president of the Football Association of Malawi and former international midfielder
Leodgar Tenga, who is a former Tanzania Football Association president and CAF executive committee member and played for his country in their only Africa Cup of Nations finals appearance in 1980
Adam Mthethwa of Swaziland and Nick Mwendwa of Kenya have since withdrawn, CAF sources added.

The three candidates from the COSAFA region – Chetty, Jordaan and Nyamilandu – could be whittled down to one after a meeting of the regional body in Johannesburg on September 9.

The member countries are to discuss the possibility of supporting one candidate from the region and asking the other two to step aside to give the preferred candidate a better chance of beating his East African rivals.

At the CAF congress, the winner must obtain an absolute majority otherwise there will be repeated rounds of voting, with the person with the lowest number of votes falling out each time, until a winner is found.

Tenga lost to Nyantakyi in the last election for the Anglophone seat in Addis Ababa two years ago.

Nyantakyi beat Tenga by 33 to 20 votes to become one of the 37 FIFA Council members, sitting at the heart of the running of the game.

Africa has six other members including CAF President Ahmad, who is automatically a FIFA vice president.

Nyantakyi’s role as CAF vice president has already been filled by Nigeria Football Federation boss Amaju Pinnick, who decided against running for the FIFA Council.

Earlier this year, Nyantakyi was filmed by an investigative journalist in a hotel room appearing to take $65,000 in cash from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghanaian football league.

After the expose on the BBC, Nyantakyi resigned from his posts as Ghana Football Association president and from the FIFA and CAF roles although he denies any wrongdoing.

FIFA suspended Nyantakyi for 90 days on June 8 but he has now left all positions in the sport.