I maintain a decent distance from football. Neither the din of international professional leagues nor the dim we cast on the local version of the game engages my enthusiasm. Not any longer.
The scandals are too many, the standards too low, often involving those one expects to know more.
Without any clear plans for our football, with fluctuating ambitions that pass for policies, our current interest is whether Cameroonian Issah Hayatou continues his ownership of CAF that began humbly in Casablanca, in 1988, during the Nations Cup Morocco hosted, or another would take his place.
I was among Nigerian journalists who covered the event where Hayatou began his reign.
Whatever he achieved have been lost in more than two decades of corruption, his failing health, and core supporters who manipulate history to beef up Hayatou’s profile.
Those searching for signs of the ails of Nigerian football, or whatever remains of our football, should look no further. The fractious enterprises of our football leadership show in the media display of unprecedented animosity.
Sponsors, supporters, and partners watch the shameless engagements to publicise the flimsy grounds on which our game stands.
Who becomes CAF President is of fringe interest to me. I can’t stand the lies, the only reason for my interjection.
A statement a group of Nigerians in CAF signed claimed that Hayatou (1988) helped election of two Nigerians into the CAF Executive Committee.
The authors of the lie dragged the name of Etubom Orok Oyo Orok (may the Almighty rest him) into their tale.
Hayatou was supposed to have aided his election into the CAF Executive Committee, a position Etubom had held since 1974, riding to prominence in FIFA, at a time Hayatou had nothing to do with football in Cameroon, and 14 years before Hayatou became CAF President.
Etubom passed on in 1998 as Honourary Life Vice President of CAF. There are abundant evidences that Hayatou depended on Etubom, presumably for the good of African football, without Etubom, old and blind, knowing that Hayatou was on his ascent to being the dictator of African football.
The re-writing of history, to belittle a 1974 election Etubom won alone in Cairo, did neither Hayatou nor Etubom’s memory any good.
I do not believe that those who penned that lie did not know Etubom’s pedigree. Or were names added to befuddle those reading the waffle?
It is a scandal that in making the case for Hayatou, Nigerians in CAF can minimise the efforts of Etubom.
I am just wondering what else they are doing for Hayatou and why they are doing it and at whose expense.
