Football Chetty elected on Caf executive committee |13 March 2021

ELVIS CHETTY … elected to Caf executive committee

Seychelles Football Federation president Elvis Chetty has been elected to the Confederation of African Football executive committee as an ordinary member.

This was during the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) annual general meeting which was held in Rabat, Morocco yesterday evening.

Barrister at law Chetty, who is serving his third term as the local football federation chairman, won 40 out of 52 votes to gain a seat on the executive committee representing the southern zone of Africa along with Botswana's Maclean Letshwiti.

Mr Chetty told Seychelles NATION that he is ecstatic of his election to this committee as he follows in the footsteps of honorary SFF member Suketu Patel who was the vice-president of CAF from 2011-2017.

As for the Caf presidency it was South African Patrrice Motsepse who was voted the seventh Caf president unopposed as all his challengers had pulled out of the race before the elections.

The 59-year-old South African billionaire has pledged to visit every single country in Africa in the next year, writes the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

"It's a huge honour and privilege for me (to be Caf president)," said Motsepe, Africa's ninth-richest person according to Forbes magazine.

"Let me thank my brother (Fifa president) Gianni (Infantino) for the vision and encouragement of unity. We can only deal with the challenges of Africa and we will succeed, but we will only do so when we are united."

He spoke of his desire to see an African team win the World Cup.

"We want our national teams to win and succeed," he said. "Some of the meaningful results will take some time but it starts with investment in our youth and infrastructure."

"I will be visiting every single country in Africa in the next 9-12 months because it is important to engage with you in your country, to meet the private sector and political leadership in every country and talk about implementation."

Outgoing Caf president Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar was barred from contesting the election due to a reduced ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on Monday.

Mr Ahmad was initially handed a five-year ban by Fifa's independent ethics committee last year, but after investigations and hearings from both parties, Cas found the Madagascan guilty of not recording various financial transactions, accepting cash payments, distributing gifts and misappropriation of Caf's funds to help finance certain federation presidents for their pilgrimages to Mecca.

His ban has been reduced to two years and he is also expected to pay a reduced fine of 50,000 Swiss Francs from the initial CHF 200,000.

Under his presidency, Caf registered a loss of US $40m dollars between 2019 and 2020.

During the general assembly, the 52 members present ‒ with Chad, whose FA was dissolved by the government on Thursday, and Eritrea the only countries failing to attend ‒ voted to expand the number of Caf vice-presidents from three to five.

Elections for both Caf's executive committee and for Africa's representation on the Fifa council were also held yesterday.

All but one of Africa's six representatives on the Fifa council were replaced with Nigeria's Amaju Pinnick, Morocco's Faouzi Lekjaa, Sierre Leone's Isha Johansen, Benin's Mathurin de Chacus and Mamoutou Toure of Mali joining Egyptian Hany Abo Rida.

Regarding Caf's own executive committee, Kanizat Ibrahim of Comoros came in for the outgoing Johansen, while Cameroon's Seidou Mbombo Njoya ‒ who was only able to contest the ballot after a last-minute court ruling ‒ replaced Chad's Adoum Djibrine.

Seychelles NATION would like to congratulate Seychellois Chetty for his election to this high office.

Compiled by R. J-L.