The former President of the Confederation of African Football Issa Hayatou has died at the age of 77. The Cameroonian took the president position in 1988 and served until 2017. He also had a high position within FIFA.
Hayatou was a member of the Switzerland-based organization’s executive committee, now known as the FIFA Council from 1990 – 2017. He was elected to lead the Confederation of African Football in 1988 and within four years was a vice president of the world soccer body FIFA. His tenure at CAF was headed in an election as he lost to Ahmad of Madagascar, who had been supported by Infantino.
He had a brief spell as acting president of FIFA between 2015 and 2016 after Sapp Blatter was suspended. In 2002, during a period of deep financial and political turmoil at FIFA, Hayatour challenged then-president Sepp Blatter in an election he would lose heavily despite support for him in Europe.
Blatter still led FIFA in 2015 when a federal investigation in the United States and Switzerland of alleged corruption in international soccer swept a generation of leaders from North and South America out of office and eventually Blatter himself.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino paid tribute to Hayatou, who is Youth was a track athlete and basketball player, in an Instagram post.
“Saddened to hear of the passing of former Caf president, former Fifa president ad interim, Fifa vice president and Fifa council member, Issa Hayatou,” Infantino wrote. “A passionate sports fan, he dedicated his life to sports administration. “On behalf of Fifa, condolences go to his family, friends, former colleagues, and all who knew him. Rest in peace.”
In 2011, he was reprimanded by the IOC ethics commission for having taken a cash payment from a Swiss marketing agency, ISL in 1995 when it sold World Cup broadcasting for FIFA.
In August 2021, Hayatou was handed a year ban by FIFA for breaching the code of Ethics when signing African football’s largest-ever deal with French media company Lagadere in 2016. The ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in February the following year.
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