Caf's Hayatou set for Fifa top job

Published 23 years ago

Cairo - Sepp Blatter's beleaguered Fifa presidency came under even more pressure on Saturday when Issa Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), said he would run against Blatter for the top job in world soccer.

Hayatou, 55, flanked by five members of Fifa's executive committee, including vice-president Antonio Matarrese of Italy and Uefa president Lennart Johansson, quickly outlined his vision of world soccer's governing body, which has been split by political in-fighting for years.

"If I am elected president, I will do everything I can to finally bring friendship back to Fifa so we become one family again, with full transparency," said Hayatou, who also received support from South Korea's Chung Mong-joon at a press conference in Seoul.

"I and my supporters want to restore peace, confidence and security to the organisation. I want to reinforce the credibility of Fifa and restore its integrity as an institution."

Hayatou, from Cameroon, is bidding to become the first African president of Fifa and believes he has enough support to unseat Blatter when the two men go head-to-head in front of the ruling body's 204-member association at the Fifa Congress in Seoul on May 29, two days before the start of the World Cup finals.

"I am sure I have the support of a large majority of the African associations," Hayatou told a news conference in the Egyptian capital.

"I am not a European, but I have the support of Uefa, the European governing body, as well. If I didn't believe I had their support, I would not have put myself forward.

"I want to bring the transparency back to Fifa, not only in the financial management, but in the management of men as well. You will have to wait a few days to see my programme, but if we win, we will do at the Fifa level what we do at Caf level.

"It is all there to see at Caf - the transparency is there.

"If I was president of Fifa, all the advantages the executive committee grant me, and the salary I earn would be made known to you, there would be no hiding it. I shall hide nothing."

Those remarks more than any other are bound to trigger what could be a very heated election campaign, as Blatter has come under increasing pressure from his own executive committee to reveal details of Fifa's finances following the collapse of their long-term marketing partner ISL-ISMM last May with reported debts of some $300-million.

Blatter has also refused to disclose details of his salary, and last week his executive committee finally won a fierce nine-month long debate to set up an internal inquiry into the state of Fifa's books following ISL's collapse.

"What is important is the development of football," he said.

Hayatou knows he will have to fight a tough campaign over the next two months to unseat Blatter, but he was optimistic about succeeding.

Asked whether a betting man should put a wager on Cameroon winning the World Cup and him becoming Fifa president to complete a double victory for his country, he laughed and said: "I would put my money on both." - Reuters