President of the Madagascar Football Association Ahmad Ahmad will be the latest to attempt to topple long-term President of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Issa Hayatou in elections scheduled to be held on Thursday.
The elections will be held in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, where heads of the continent’s football associations have met for 39th Ordinary General Assembly.
It is being held at the headquarters of the African Union to commemorate Caf’s 60 years in existence.
The elections will be observed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who has been in Addis Ababa since the start of the Assembly.
Hayatou has been at the helm of Caf since 1988 upon the retirement of Ethiopia’s Ydnekatchew Tessema.
He has seen three FIFA presidents, a position he occupied after the resignation of Josep Sepp Blatter until Infantino was elected in February, 2016.
Hayatou has often stood unopposed and on occasions he had been challenged, he won with landslides.
In 2000, he beat Angola’s Armando Machado by 47-4 votes and four years later he defeated Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana by 46-6 votes.
He is seeking an eighth term.
But challenger Ahmad seems to have courted the liking of South African football heads as he claims he has the support of over 30 presidents.
He is campaigning on administrative reform, financial transparency and a potential reorganisation of Caf competitions.
If he is successful, the Malagasy will be only the seventh president of the Confederation.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana