African football associations have largely kept their counsel amid the storm over the future of beleaguered FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who is banking on their support to keep his job.
But while the Confederation of African Football has issued a statement backing him, putting CAF at odds with three other continental governing bodies that want Infantino to account for his now-abandoned plan to carve off World Cup commercial rights, there is no guarantee African countries will toe the line.
While Swiss-Italian Infantino is popular with African associations as he has substantially increased their FIFA grants over his decade in office, he cannot be guaranteed a block vote from the 54 CAF members when he faces re-election on March 17 at the FIFA Congress in Morocco.
Africa represents a significant chunk of votes, but past endorsements from CAF have been largely ignored by members, rendering them worth little more than the paper they were written on.
CAF had an alliance with UEFA when the European governing body’s president Lennart Johansson stood for the FIFA presidency in 1998, but African member associations voted overwhelmingly to put his rival Sepp Blatter in power.
Africans with history of breaking ranks
Four years later, when CAF president Issa Hayatou challenged Blatter, the Swiss won a second term in a landslide vote with the majority of African countries voting for him.
Infantino’s ascension to power in 2016 came despite CAF’s endorsement of rival Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa from Bahrain, with many African countries helping Infantino over the line in the second round of voting.
CAF members also broke ranks despite the organisation supporting Morocco's bid to host the 2026 World Cup.
Eleven African countries voted instead for the joint North American bid by Canada, Mexico and the United States at the FIFA Congress in Moscow in 2018 – mostly in a stand-off over the Western Sahara, the subject of Africa's longest-running territorial dispute since colonial power Spain left in 1975.
Morocco considers the territory its own, while the Polisario Front seeks to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic, which several African countries recognise.
African backing looks strong but could change
For the moment, Infantino’s African backing seems strong, but this could change if the open revolt he has faced over the past fortnight intensifies, Reuters' interviews with several African association leaders in the last few days have revealed.
All African associations wrote letters at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver in April expressing support for Infantino’s re-election ambitions, but that was before revelations of his plans to sell a stake in future World Cups.
That proposal has raised the virulent ire of UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, which runs football in the Caribbean, North, and Central America.
Several African association presidents have expressed surprise at the force of the reaction against Infantino but wanted to keep their opinions off the record, waiting to see if a candidate to oppose him in next March’s election emerges.
Some formal support for Infantino
However, Infantino has been given formal support over the last week by statements from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Niger, and there have been others who have also expressed their backing.
“I see no reason not to support him,” added Mathurin de Chacus, president of the Benin federation and a member of the CAF executive committee, while Alexandre Muyenge of Burundi said: “He is a president who is doing what is necessary to support Africa, particularly the less wealthy countries. His record is good, so it is logical to support him."
FIFA holds elections every four years with Infantino unopposed in 2019 and 2023. Any potential rival next year must submit his or her candidacy by November 18.
FIFA’s statutes say a simple majority of 106 votes is required to win when two candidates are standing.
The governing bodies of the six continental confederations have no vote in the FIFA election although each of their respective presidents gets an automatic seat on the all-powerful FIFA Council with vice president status.
