We have been able to trace the beginning of the dark age of African football to the fateful meeting in Madagascar on 13th November 2015 at the stade Municipal de Mahamasina in the capital city of Antananarivo.
The meeting, held on the sidelines of a FIFA World Cup qualifier between Madagascar and Senegal was attended by Gianni Infantino (then gunning for the FIFA Presidency), CAF Exco member Ahmad Ahmad who played host as Madagascar FA President and UNDP country boss Fatma Samoura.
Samoura, Infantino & Ahmad: Axis of evil
In the same way that a dislodged pebble can cause an avalanche, the meeting had been cobbled together for the singular purpose of finding a formulae for circumventing the then influential CAF President Issa Hayatou and his network, in order to deliver victory for Infantino against a much fancied Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of the Royal house of Bahrain.
Apparently, Issa Hayatou was singularly opposed to Infantino in favor of Prince Salman with whom he had worked previously and formed a close bond in the FIFA Council of the disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Someone had wisely advised Infantino that the only way he could conquer Africa was through the wily survivor Ahmad Ahmad Darw of Madagascar who carried with him, in his breast shirt-pocket, a huge swathe of disaffected and intimidated African FA Presidents.
After 28 years in power, Issa Hayatou had apparently also lost his deft touch with African FA presidents, a sad situation brought on by his listening exclusively to the praise-singers and court jesters who surrounded him and were therefore the gatekeepers to his Royal court.
Blatter with Hayatou in happier days
These characters ensured that no one outside their little tight-knit group could come anywhere near Hayatou. Guinean Almamy Kabele was particularly notorious for insinuating himself in any and all meetings of Hayatou with other FA Presidents, especially those with good proposals, which he would subsequently trash when his opinion was requested.
In Antananarivo however, a most diabolical deal was struck that night, whose repercussions would reverberate in African and World football for years to come.
Ahmad promised to find the funds and the means to mobilize African FA Presidents to support Infantino in February 2016, but in return and as a quid pro quo, Infantino would use the mighty FIFA office to do two things.
The first was to appoint Fatma Samoura (who was in that same meeting) to the position of FIFA General Secretary while the second part of the deal was propel him (Ahmad) to the CAF Presidency a year later.
Almamy Kabele: Head of Hayatou’s inner circle
The rest as they say, is history…
The African vote swung victory in favor of Infantino, who in turn appointed Fatma Samoura to the plum position of FIFA GS.
Immediately thereafter attention turned to the imminent CAF Presidential election of March 2017, with Infantino using his infamous African tours to silently lobby for Ahmad with promises of reward on the one hand, or fire and damnation on the other.
Ahmad ultimately flipped the CAF Presidential elections in 2017 much to the shock of many commentators, and so began his reign of terrifying ineptitude and rabid kleptocracy in what will go down in the annals of history as the African football example of a kakistocracy.
There was an unspoken understanding between Ahmad and Infantino that the only way to get through to African FA Presidents was through the “brown envelope” which was true of their voting at the CAF General Assembly and the FIFA Congress since forever.
Brown envelope: Modus operandi for African football
Tales of football development or the quantum leap of the game in Africa sounds like pure gibberish to African FA Presidents.
Once you understand this about African FA Presidents, you also understand that the only way that you can satiate them sufficiently in order to procure their allegiance would be to increase the points of contact with CAF and FIFA money in any given year.
For instance, CAF increased the number of its Executive committee (Exco) members from 13 members to 23 members which therefore incorporated almost 43% of the 54 members of CAF to be in the Exco (which effectively runs the affairs of the CAF).
Each Exco member then chairs one of the standing committees of CAF, which are then stuffed with the remainder of FA Presidents and their cronies.
They then become incorporated into the expenditure of all the annual CAF competitions like the biennial AFCON and CHAN, the biennial U17, U20 and U23 AFCONs, the Women’s AFCON.
More adversely was the decision of the CAF Exco to wire $20,000 to each FA Presidents personal account annually to “defray expenses” which in real sense was a standard bribe to vote how Ahmad wanted. Whilst most took the money, some few principled FA Presidents saw it for the problem and bribe that it was.
This points of contact with FIFA and CAF money are then cascaded to the competitions of the Zonal Unions (CECAFA, COSAFA, UNAF, UNIFFAC and WAFU) which also have their own competitions funded by UEFA (yes, you read right), CAF and FIFA.
The FA Presidents of the members of these Zonal Unions are incorporated into the expenditures of these competitions annually and their General Assemblies.
The zonal Unions are so critical to the voting patterns at CAF that when they host the zonal finals for the various competitions, they are compelled to have their extraordinary General assemblies, which imply that all the FA Presidents from each member FA must attend. CAF even sent out a circular instructing the zonal unions that CAF would foot the expenses for all these EGAs.
Circular from CAF to the Zonal Unions, an important political tool
Then at home, each of the FAs expects to receive (just for being in existence) subvention (grants) from CAF, FIFA and National team support from their respective Governments.
In each of these engagements, the FA Presidents fly business class, accommodated in 5-star hotels on full-board basis, expect a generous daily per diem and ultimately, the sound of a brown envelope sliding against the wall-to-wall carpets under their hotel door in the middle of the night.
With all this football and money flying around, you would be forgiven for hoping that Africa epitomizes the best of the game, wouldn’t you? Wrong!
One of the terms of reference for Fatma Samoura in her role of FIFA GS is the facilitation of more and more money to be channeled to CAF and ultimately to the FA Presidents.
Remember that Fatma and Ahmad have had a very long and intimate relationship all the way from Madagascar, and one of their pet projects was to push African FAs to vote for Morocco to host the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The vote was taken at the 2018 FIFA congress in Moscow.
Obviously both Ahmad and Fatma didn’t know that Infantino was secretly working behind the scenes for his preferred bid – the United 2026 bid – of US, Canada and Mexico.
FIFA had approved some funds, in the form of the FIFA Forward program grants meant for specific and approved projects, for FAs, CAF and the Zonal Unions.
The FIFA Forward Development Programme regulations state explicitly that;
“A contribution of USD 40 million over four years per confederation (CAF, UEFA, AFC, CONMEBOL, OFC and CONCACAF) aimed at developing, promoting and organizing football in general. The details of these projects must be recorded in the contract of agreed objectives”.
“A contribution of up to USD 1 million per zonal/regional association (recognized by its confederation at the time that these regulations came into force) per year for the reimbursement of costs related to the organization of regional youth competitions (for girls and boys)”.
It is very important that you keep in mind that the regulations governing the FIFA Froward programme state that there must be a “contract of agreed objectives” for the release of funds either to the confederations or their zonal unions.
The disbursement of funds by FIFA was through 5-step procedure of checks and counter-checks that was built into the regulations.
These 5 phases are; (i). Preparation of the contract of objectives (ii). Development of the proposal (iii). Approval (iv). Execution and (v). Monitoring
These decisions for the release of FIFA Forward grants actually have to pass through the general secretariat of FIFA to be assessed for compliance with the laid down criteria, before subsequently being passed on to the FIFA Development committee for further perusal and ratification, if it is compliant.
Each of the FAs, Zonal Unions or Confederations must set up separate bank accounts for the FIFA Forward funds.
By early 2018, the urgency to procure the votes of FA Presidents for the Morocco 2026 bid reached fever pitch, and it now fell upon Fatma Samoura to earn her keep and to repay the massive debt she owed CAF President Ahmad for her plum position at CAF.
For the FIFA Forward grants relating to the CAF ($10 million p.a. for 2017 and 2018) she arranged for a bypass of the vetting system within FIFA that allowed the funds to be wired directly to CAF without having to go through the development committee or for CAF to sign a contract of agreed objectives.
The double payment of $25.5 million by FIFA to CAF in July 2018
Within CAF, there were fireworks within a CAF Secretariat committee that was meant to exclusively handle the application process for the FIFA Forward programme. The membership also knew that FIFA would never release funds to a non-compliant Confederation before the projects had been approved by both the CAF Exco and CAF General Assembly.
So they stood their ground against a groundswell of resentment from the new kitchen cabinet aligned to Ahmad, who referred to them as “the lost children of Hayatou” and all of which later got them all sacked.
Fatma Samoura was instrumental in helping CAF bypass all the necessary processes for the release of the (double payment) of two tranches of $25.5 million each on 11th and 12th July 2018.
Ominously, Samoura was also the brainchild behind the caper where the Zonal Unions got their $1million annually without fulfilling this strict FIFA requirement.
She wondered aloud, why the hell this money can’t simply be hidden within the CAF grants and then shared out by CAF, without the zonal Unions breaking a sweat or having to participate in the very rigorous process of vetting set out in the FIFA Forward programme regulations.
In this way, the FA Presidents were able to access additional loot from their respective zonal unions in the run-up to the Morocco 2026 bid vote in Moscow.
It must be stated here that the only zonal union that went out of its way to comply with FIFA requirements was COSAFA, even though for the purposes of uniformity their funds were equally channeled through CAF.
This abuse of office by FIFA GS Fatma Samoura exhibits a pattern of impunity obviously endorsed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and which now also includes the hostile takeover of CAF in a bid to cover their financial tracks in the misuse of CAF bank accounts for the siphoning of FIFA funds.
Wont Ahmad become extinct from African football like the Dodo from his native Madagascar?
This is also the clearest indicator yet of the reason CAF has not had any audited accounts approved by the CAF General assembly since 2017, in gross violation of the CAF statutes.
The very reason that Infantino would callously ignore the sentiments of UEFA President Ceferin about the unconstitutionality of the CAF – FIFA hostile takeover, because he knew very well that he needed Samoura to come to Africa as the General Delegate, to try obliterate the audit trail.
The most shocking thing is however, we have all always known how irredeemably corrupt FIFA really is, but we can’t help wonder whether FIFA systems have become so pedestrian that $25.5 million (there could be several such “errors”) can be siphoned off so easily from the organization, into the most corrupt Confederation in the World?
Or has FIFA simply employed the most incompetent buffoons in the World of finance and accounting or just the most corrupt as per stereotype?
