Nigerian football administrator Amaju Pinnick has thrown his weight behind the removal of regional blocks in the upcoming FIFA Council elections, saying it will allow the best representatives to emerge for Africa.
The FIFA Council seats are up for grabs during the next CAF elections slated for March 12, 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Pinnick, who is seeking re-election for another four-year term on the FIFA Council, will face stiff competition from nine other candidates.
The contenders include Hany Abou Rida of Egypt and Fouzi Lekjaa of Morocco, who are both seeking re-election. Other candidates vying for the six tickets at stake are Yahia Ahmed of Mauritania, Souleiman Waberi of Djibouti, Idriss Dialli of Cote d’Ivoire, Mathurin Chakus of Benin Republic, Augustine Senghor of Senegal, Djibrilla Pele Hamidou of Niger Republic, and Andrew Kamanga of Zambia.
One of the six tickets is reserved for women’s representatives from the continent on the 37-member FIFA Council. Isha Johansen of Sierra Leone, who currently occupies the seat, will face challenges from Lydia Nsekera of Burundi and Kanizat Ibrahim of the Comoros Island.
The March 12 elections in Cairo will mark a significant departure from previous polls, as the removal of language blocks is expected to increase competition and bring an element of fairness to the process. The decision to remove regional blocks was made during the 46th CAF General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Pinnick, who is also a CAF Executive Committee member, welcomed the change, saying it will allow the best five candidates to represent Africa, regardless of their regional background. “It was a conventional decision to remove the bottleneck of ethnicity and allow the best five to represent Africa, no matter where they come from,” Pinnick said.
In his first official interview on the FIFA Council elections, Pinnick stressed that the decision to remove regional blocks was aimed at promoting merit over ethnicity. “If the best five come from the Anglophone region, so be it. If they come from the Arab zone, that is alright. They are all representing Africa,” he added.
Pinnick also dismissed reports that he was confident of re-election with at least 18 votes from the COSAFA and CECAFA regions. “When I saw the publication that I have 18 votes, I just laughed. There are investigative journalists all over the continent, and I think somebody looked at the elections and came out with that number,” Pinnick said.
He, however, acknowledged that both COSAFA and CECAFA have a total of 26 votes, which could play a significant role in determining the outcome of the elections.
