Issa Hayatou

Issa Hayatou (born 9 August 1946) is a Cameroonian sports executive, former athlete and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 1988 and 2017. He served as the acting FIFA president until 26 February 2016 as previous president Sepp Blatter was banned from all football-related activities in 2015 as a part of the that year's FIFA corruption investigation.[3] In 2002, he ran for president of FIFA but was defeated by Blatter. He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Issa Hayatou
President of FIFA
Acting
In office
8 October 2015 – 26 February 2016
Preceded bySepp Blatter
Succeeded byGianni Infantino
Senior Vice President of FIFA[1]
In office
3 July 1992 – 16 March 2017
PresidentJoão Havelange
Sepp Blatter
Gianni Infantino
Preceded byGeneral Mostafa
Succeeded byÁngel María Villar
5th President of CAF
In office
10 March 1988 – 16 March 2017
Preceded byAbdel Halim Muhammad
Succeeded byAhmad Ahmad
Honorary Member of International Olympic Committee
Assumed office
16 July 2001 (Hon. Since 2017)[2]
Preceded byList
Personal details
Born (1946-08-09) 9 August 1946
Garoua, French Cameroons
Occupation
  • Sportsman
  • Football administrator

In November 2010 he was alleged by the BBC to have taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of World Cup television rights. The IOC has announced it will investigate him.[4] Following the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Hayatou took charge of FIFA, as the acting president, until 26 February 2016 when Gianni Infantino was elected to the position. On 16 March 2017, he was defeated by Malagasy challenger Ahmad Ahmad, ending Hayatou's 29-year reign as the CAF President. On 24 May 2017, he was appointed President of the National Football Academy by the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya.[5]

Life and career

Hayatou was born in Garoua, Cameroon on 9 August 1946, the son of a local Sultan, and became a middle distance runner and physical education teacher. Hayatou had a successful career as an athlete, becoming a member of the Cameroonian national squads in both Basketball and Athletics, and holding national record times in the 400 and 800-meter running.[6]

He is married with four children. The Hayatou family are traditional holders of the sultanate (Lamidat, from the Sokoto Caliphate's traditional Fula title Lamine) of Garoua. Hayatou was son of the reigning sultan, and many relatives have acceded to powerful positions in Cameroonian society.[7] Most notable is Issa's brother Sadou Hayatou, a former Prime Minister of Cameroon and longtime high official under Cameroon president Paul Biya, who was among those tapped to succeed him.[8] The Hayatou family continue to wield much political influence in northern Cameroon.[9]

In 1974, aged just 28, he became Secretary General of the Cameroonian Football Federation, and Chair of the FA in 1986. As chair, he was chosen the same year to sit on the CAF Executive Committee. Following the retirement of Ethiopia's Ydnekatchew Tessema from the CAF presidency in August 1987, Hayatou was elected as the fifth president in the body's history.[10] He lost his seventh re-election campaign to Ahmad Ahmad in March 2017.[11]

Growth of the CAF
Main article: History of CAF § Hayatou's era

President of CAF for almost three decades, Hayatou has overseen particularly successful FIFA World Cup appearances by Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and pushed for African places in the finals to increase from two to five, with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa seeing the hosts garner an automatic sixth spot for an African team. Mr. Hayatou has presided over both the bid and the organising committee for the 2010 games, the first in Africa. The African Cup of Nations finals expanded from 8 to 16 teams, in a confederation of over 50 nations in six zones and five regional confederations. Club competitions have undergone a similar growth in both numbers and scale, with more clubs participating in the African Cup of Champions Clubs, the CAF Confederation Cup (begun in 2004 for national cup winners and high-placed league teams), the CAF Cup, and the CAF Super Cup. There has also been an expansion outside men's football, with the CAF overseeing Youth, Women's, Fustal, and Beach soccer competitions.[10][12]

Relations with UEFA and FIFA

One of the major aims of Hayatou's presidency in the late 1990s was to provide incentives to African football clubs which would stem the flow of African players to Europe; an initiative which met with little success.[13] Hayatou has couched some criticism of the uneven flow of football 'resources' in colonial terms, saying that "rich countries import the raw material – talent – and often send their less valuable technicians", an implied criticism of foreign coaching staffs that employed by most African national sides.[14] A September 1997 initiative negotiated by Hayatou with UEFA saw the payment of fees to African governing bodies and clubs for African-born players working in Europe. This was followed by the Meridian Project signed in December 1997 with UEFA, which was to provide cash payments to African National Associations every other year, and created the UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup. The 1999 Goal Project created with FIFA gives 46 African FAs financial support worth one million dollars over four years.[10] These negotiations, regardless of their impact on African club football, forged a close relationship between UEFA leaders and Hayatou, and led to UEFA's backing of Hayatou's nomination to replace Sepp Blatter as head of FIFA in 2002.[15][16] Blatter, supported by the American and Asian confederations, defeated Hayatou by 139 votes to 56.[17]

Corruption allegations

In November 2010 Andrew Jennings, the presenter of FIFA's Dirty Secrets, an edition of BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama alleged that Hayatou had taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of contracts for the sale of television rights to the football World Cup.[18] Panorama claimed to have obtained a document from a company called ISL which showed that Hayatou was paid 100,000 French Francs by the company.[19] ISL won the contract to distribute the television rights.[18] Hayatou has denied the allegations, saying that the money went not to him but to CAF.[20] The IOC has announced it will investigate Hayatou, due to his membership of the organisation.[4]

In May 2011, The Sunday Times published claims from a whistle-blower that Hayatou had, along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, accepted $1.5 million bribes from Qatar to secure his support for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[21]

2010 Togo suspension
Main article: Togo national football team attack

Just days before the end of the 2010 African Cup in Angola, Issa Hayatou found himself in the middle of a controversy after the CAF's suspension of Togo national football team from the next two African Cup of Nations. Hayatou charged the Togolese government with interference in the Togolese Football Association's affairs when the team withdrew from the 2010 cup prior to its start. The Togolese team was victim of a January 8, 2010 armed attack while travelling to Angola by bus prior to the start of the Cup, resulting in two deaths in the Togo delegation. Togolese captain Emmanuel Adebayor[22] and Togo coach Hubert Velud strongly criticised Hayatou in particular for the CAF decision, calling on him to resign from the CAF presidency.[23]

Olympic committee confusion

On 21 September 2011 it was announced that FIFA had appointed Hayatou President of FIFA's Olympic committee and approved his role as chairman of the Goal Bureau. Hayatou had previously headed FIFA's Olympic committee from 1992 to 2006. At the time of his appointment, Hayatou was still under investigation for alleged bribery.[24] It was later denied by FIFA that Hayatou had been appointed President of the Olympic committee, his apparent appointment was described as "a technical error".[25]

Sports career
  • 1964 – 1971 Champion at the 400m and 800m; member of the Cameroon national basketball team; football player at university level.
  • 1965 Member of the Cameroon national basketball team on the occasion of the first All Africa Games in Brazzaville.

Administrative career
  • 1973 – 1974 Coordinator-Professor at the Lycée Leclerc (Yaoundé)
  • 1974 – 1983 General Secretary of the Cameroonian Football Federation
  • 1982 – 1986 Director of Sports of Cameroon (Ministry of Youth and Sports)
  • 1985 – 1988 President of the Cameroonian Football Federation
  • 1986 Member of the Cameroonian Football Federation Executive Committee
  • 1988 – 2017 President of the Confederation of African Football
  • 1990 Member of the FIFA Executive Committee
  • 1992 – present FIFA Senior Vice-President; President of the Organising committee of the Football at the Summer Olympic and FIFA competitions (cue FIFA Competitions (till 2006); Vice-President of FIFA Committee for Security and Fair-Play; Member of the World Cup Organising Committee
  • 1997 Member of the Women and Sport Committee of the International Olympic Committee; Head of the Cameroonian sports delegations on several sporting occasions
  • 2001 Elected member of the International Olympic Committee during the 121st Moscow session
  • 2015 – 2016 Acting President of FIFA[26]

Awards

On 3 November 2007, Hayatou was awarded an honorary degree from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria.[27]

References
  1. "Minutes of the 48th Ordinary Congress" (PDF). Lff.lt. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  2. "The IOC in Moscow" (PDF). Library.la84.org. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  3. "Issa Hayatou to be acting Fifa president following suspension of Sepp Blatter". The Guardian. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  4. Owen Gibson (30 November 2010) "England's 2018 hopes rise as Vladimir Putin hints he will not turn up", The Guardian
  5. Wandji, Arthur (24 May 2017). "Anafoot : Biya nomme Hayatou et Enow Ngachu". camfoot.com (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  6. Issa Hayatou: Les 50 personnalités qui font le Cameroun. Jeune Afrique 28 April 2009
  7. Ketil Fred Hansen The Politics of Personal Relations: Beyond Neopatrimonial Practices in Northern Cameroon. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 73, No. 2 (2003), pp. 202–225
  8. Ces trois barons du nord... LA LETTRE DU CONTINENT N°360, 21 September 2000.
  9. Marafa Hamidou Yaya: Un pétrolier dans les arcanes du pouvoir Archived 7 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Mohamadou HOUMFA, Journal du Cameroun. 25 November 2009.
  10. Hayatou's actions in developing African football. Tiego Tiemtore. PANA Press. 2006.
  11. "Madagascar FA chief Ahmad elected as new Caf president". BBC Sport. 16 March 2017.
  12. Issa Hayatou : Mes 20 ans à la Caf Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Missi Bikoun, Mutations (Youande), 10 March 2008.
  13. Paul Darby, Gerard Akindes, Matthew Kirwin Football Academies and the Migration of African Football Labor to Europe. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 31, No. 2, 143–161 (2007)
  14. A Desai, G Vahed.World Cup 2010: Africa's turn or the turn on Africa? Soccer & Society, Volume 11, Issue 1, January 2010 , pages 154 – 167.
  15. John Sugdun, Alan Tominson, Paul Darby (1998). "FIFA versus UEFA in the struggle for the control of world football". pp. 11–31 in Adam Brown (ed) Fanatics!: power, identity, and fandom in football. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-18104-4 pp. 22–27.
  16. Paul Darby (2003). "Africa, the FIFA Presidency, and the Governance of World Football: 1974, 1998, and 2002". Africa Today. 50 (1): 3–24. doi:10.1353/at.2003.0055.
  17. Alan Tomlinson (2007). "Lord, Don't Stop the Carnival: Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 FIFA World Cup". Journal of Sport & Social Issues. 31 (3): 259–282. doi:10.1177/0193723507304643.
  18. "Panorama: Three FIFA World Cup officials took bribes", BBC (29 November 2010)
  19. Gibson, Owen (8 December 2011). "Lamine Diack and Issa Hayatou disciplined by IOC over kickbacks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  20. "Fifa chief Issa Hayatou denies bribery claims", BBC (1 December 2010)
  21. "FIFA demands evidence of corruption". ESPN Soccernet. 11 May 2011. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  22. Sack Issa Hayatou – Adebayor. BBC/Peace FM (Accra). 1 February 2010.
  23. Togo Coach: Issa Hayatou Doesn’t Deserve To Head CAF. Rami Ayari, Goal. 3 February 2010.
  24. "Fifa appoints executive accused of bribery to head London 2012 football". The Guardian. 21 September 2011.
  25. "Fifa denies Issa Hayatou is head of Olympic football". BBC News. 21 September 2011.
  26. "Acting FIFA President Issa Hayatou". FIFA. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015. On 8 October 2015, given the decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee to provisionally ban Joseph S. Blatter from all football activities on a national and international level, Issa Hayatou assumed the Office of FIFA President on an interim basis, as the longest-serving vice-president on FIFA's Executive Committee – according to article 32 (6) of the FIFA Statutes.
  27. "Hayatou honoured in Nigeria". Panapress. Afriquenligne. 4 November 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007.
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