Hayatou out as Africa’s soccer president

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Issa Hayatou was voted out as president of the African soccer confederation on Thursday after 29 years in charge, ending his tenure as FIFA senior vice president.

Hayatou’s 34-20 loss to Ahmad in a vote by the Confederation of African Football’s member countries delivered a seismic shakeup for soccer on the continent, which Hayatou had led since 1988.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino invited speculation he was backing Ahmad, and turned on his senior vice president when he appeared last month at a party hosted by Ahmad’s flamboyant campaign manager.

Hayatou was never an ally of Infantino, judging by his support for one of Infantino’s opponents in the FIFA presidential election last year.

“It is annoying that a FIFA president influenced this election for his own interest,” said Hayatou supporter Opes Manuel Nascimento, the head of the Guinea-Bissau federation.

Hayatou, a member of FIFA’s top brass since 1990, appeared to be the latest of the old guard removed by a desire for change sweeping through soccer since FIFA’s corruption scandal two years ago.

Hayatou stood in as acting FIFA president in the wake of the 2015 scandal, reigned supreme over CAF for three decades, and had been challenged only twice before for re-election.

Ahmad also made enticing pledges to voters, offering more money to countries from CAF’s central coffers and business class travel for officials heading to meetings.

Email correspondence between Ahmad and an aide to disgraced former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar was published by British newspaper The Sunday Times in 2014.

The emails from 2010 detail Ahmad reminding Bin Hammam that he promised money to help Ahmad’s re-election campaign to lead the Madagascar federation.

The Bin Hammam aide who Ahmad was emailing, Najeeb Chirakal, was banned for life by the FIFA ethics committee in January for involvement in unethical payments made to soccer officials.