FIFA President, Gianni Infantino unveiled an 11-point plan at the Confederation of Africa’s Football executive committee meeting held in Egypt on Wednesday, to jointly administer African football.
Infantino explained that the plan is not to overrun African football, but to “significantly improve” sport on the continent.
Among the suggestions made by the FIFA boss include possible changes to the format of CAF competitions, a review of refereeing, a task force to improve stadium security, review of CAF’s judicial bodies, full transparency of money flows and implementation of good governance principles.
FIFA will send its Senegalese secretary general, Fatma Samoura, on a ninth-month secondment from August to recondition CAF, after much deliberation on the issues that have long plagued the continental football governing body.
“What counts is that we decide to cooperate, that the highest FIFA administrator is coming to work with CAF to improve African football significantly.
“This is about democracy. We take on board all comments of everyone and together we try to do our best. The only thing I ask is to judge on us on the results and not on speculation.”
Ifantino
Speaking on the impending takeover, Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick, said the goal was to improve Africa’s football, not take it away.
Pinnick, who is also the CAF vice-president, said it is a partnership that is expected to birth great things for the game in Africa.
“We want to change the narrative from takeover to partnership and collaboration.
“People just feel that they are taking over but it’s not the case. Basically, it’s to strengthen our judicial, our governance and our fiscal discipline. It’s pure collaboration.”
Pinnick