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| Nyantakyi, GFA Boss |
GFA Boss Nyantakyi hopes CAF will act within the laws
The newly elected Interim President of the West African Football Union (WAFU) Kwesi Nyantakyi has played down talks that the Union is fully behind Mohammed Bin Hammam, a FIFA Presidential Candidate.
Mr. Nyantakyi, the Ghana Football Association President, was speaking at a press briefing at the end of the WAFU meeting in Banjul, The Gambia on April 9, 2011.
The President of Liberia Football Association Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, Niger’s Colonel Djibriua Hima, and Ghana’s former Sports Minister Abdul Rashid, all openly showed their support to the candidacy of the Qatari, Bin Hammam.
In fact, Mr. Bility did say: “We in WAFU are in support of Bin Hammam because we want to move from being followers to become leaders. We will need to demand for more money to support our football.”
But Mr. Nyantakyi said WAFU cannot influence any member to vote for the Qatari. Football Associations are independent and have the final say as to who to vote for, but the Union cannot influence its members to vote for Bin Hammam.
However, in its communiqué, the General Assembly noted the attendance of Mr. Mohammed Bin Hammam at the meeting and wishes him well in his bid to become President of FIFA.
“The General Assembly accepted a recommendation from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to postpone elections to the Executive Committee of the WAFU until the former carries out a proposed review of the organisation of all zonal unions in Africa,” the WAFU communiqué read.
However, the Ghana FA Boss Nyantakyi said: “I do not know what that means but I hope that whatever is done will be within the laws.”
Since its inception, WAFU has had financial constraint as its major problem, and Nyantakyi admitted this, but he said both the interim and the next executive committee of WAFU will make it a top priority.
He added he was not in a position to reveal the strategies they’ll adopt in the process, saying “it’s too early to disclose our fundraising activities”.
He described the meeting as “very successful” and that all programmes of WAFU will go ahead as planned.
On the election of the interim committee, he said it was free of contest. “One person brought forward all the names and it was endorsed by the General Assembly,” he explained.
The seven-member interim executive committee led by Nyantakyi will steer the affairs of WAFU until their next meeting in Zurich. Other members of the interim committee are Senegal’s Augustin Senghore, Guinea Bissau’s Jose Lobato, Gambia’s Seedy Kinteh, Cote D’Ivoire’s Idris Diallo, Burkina Faso’s Theodore Sawadogo and Mali’s Hamadou Cisse.
Nyantakyi said the executive committee will start work in earnest and its first task will be to determine the future of its headquarters in Cote D’Ivoire due to the political crisis.
“The interim Executive Committee was mandated to consider moving the WAFU Secretariat to a country where it will be more functional,” he said.
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“The interim Executive Committee was mandated to consider moving the WAFU Secretariat to a country where it will be more functional,” he said.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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