Adekunle Salami 
In politics at any level, nothing is certain. It is a terrain in which 2 plus 2 could produce 22 as the answer. I dread politics in many ways based on various experiences. Football politics is like any other and the intrigues and other uncertainties are also prevalent.
During the week, the Confederation of Africa Football held its 14th Extraordinary General Assembly in Cairo and it was not a surprise that South African Patrice Motsepe was re-elected unopposed to serve for a second term as CAF President. I am aware of the marketing drive of Motsepe which has brought in corporate organisations to support the body’s activities but his decision on regional representation of teams for global events is killing football on the continent. Motsepe believes for every World Cup or Olympic Games football event, all the regions on the continent must be represented rather than throw it open for the best teams to emerge on merit. It was a shock how other members of the board agreed with him for the countries to be zoned for qualification for global events. That gave rise to the WAFU A, WAFU B that we see today. And so top teams on the continent like Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire will have to cancel themselves out just as teams like Tanzania and other less fancied teams from the Eastern part of the continent will earn a berth. This is bad politics just to embrace inclusiveness not to produce the best on the continent to face the world.
Barcelona and Cameroon legend, Samuel Eto’o, won a seat in the EXCO of CAF and I believe this is a lesson for Nigeria’s ex-internationals to start from their respective state FAs and grow up to the national and later continental stage.
In the FIFA Council election, it was a narrow loss by Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick but when I checked the five top shots who made it, they were all Francophone personalities and so it was intense politicking. Pinnick also admitted this saying he expected 40 votes but got 28. Niger FA boss, Djibrilla Hamidou, polled 35 votes to emerge 3rd. Fouzi Lekjaa, FA boss of Morocco, was top, Hani Abou Rida of Egypt was second with Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania 4th and Souleiman Waberi who edged Pinnick with just one vote was 5th and he is from Djibouti. Politics is indeed dirty and full of uncertainties.
