CAF to decide on FIFA presidency vote

Africa’s football governing body, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is to decide on February 5 which candidate for the FIFA presidency it will support.

“We have an executive committee meeting on February 5 in Kigali and the question will be put vis-a-vis the FIFA presidential elections, so it will then be in the hands of the executive committee and its president to decide on which path to follow,” said Hicham El Amrani, General Secretary of the body.

El Amrani made this point on the sidelines of the signing of an agreement between CAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to organise tournaments and programmes for technical development.

The AFC is headed by Bahraini Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, one of the candidates in the race.

The choice of the 54-member CAF is very crucial for the FIFA elections scheduled for February 26 in Zurich.

Africa enjoys the biggest membership, and is trailed by UEFA (53), Asia (46), Concacaf (35), Oceania (11) and South America (10).

Other candidates for the position are UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino, former FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, South African business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale and former FIFA official Jerome Champagne of France.