Following the accusation levelled against the African and Asian Football Confederations over the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two bodies, Issa Hayatou, the man who stepped into the shoes of disgraced and suspended FIFA president, Sepp Blatter in acting capacity, has opted to step aside as CAF president until a new leader of the world governing body is elected next month.
Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, the Jordanian candidate for the FIFA Presidency, had cried out that the MOU which was coming too close to the FIFA election appeared to be a “blatant attempt” to secure a bloc vote for one of his rivals in the race to succeed Blatter – the AFC President Shaikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.
The 69-year-old Cameroonian, also a member of the International Olympic Committee, who signed the agreement with Shaikh Salman, a candidate in the FIFA election, will step away from CAF temporarily to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest.
Even though both the African (CAF) and Asian (AFC) bodies have denied signing the MOU because of the FIFA election, Prince Ali has asked the FIFA Electoral Committee to investigate the matter, stressing that African votes in the crucial FIFA election should not be “for sale”.
