The Rabat Thriller: Gianni Infantino Conspiracy against Africa Football

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. Following Ahmad Ahmad and Constant Omari Selemani era, here is the trio: Motsepe, Senghor and Yahya. Finally, Monsieur Infantino, your mayonnaise has gelled; and the next day? What would it be some days later?

The epilog of an extravagant repertoire is set for this weekend’s opera in Nouakchott. No surprise whether Infantino would call on Quincy Jones to compose the hit of the year while Martin Scorsese will take care of the video clip that will accompany the sound track of this thriller, confirming the plot to demise CAF, that was brewing from the Swiss bases. The Rabat Agreement, the terms of reference of which were dictated by infantino, gave birth to the skeletal figure of the next African football government embodied by the Confederation of African Football. Rabat was the place of all the meetings last weekend, and stakes are high. The four contenders for the CAF throne, namely, Augustin Senghor, Ahmed Yahya, Jacques Anouma and Patrice Motsepe, met in Rabate to share Africa football as at the Berlin conference (1884-1885), with a Bismarck, knife in hand, and ready to cut the cake on which it was written AFRICA. Today’s Bismarck, Gianni Infantino, a formidable hero, slices up CAF as if he were wagging a knife in the soft stomach of the foie gras, supported by the sons of Africa that Gianni is slaying; et tu quoque, Brutus Infantino!

The relentless struggle for the conquest of African dignity and its freedom against submission to the yoke of the neo-colonizer, is still a tragedy in the process of being perpetuated with a style reminiscent of the painful epic slavery that often started from the Island of Gorée to t6he sugar cane fields in the Americas. After having reached nine (9) African countries in less than a week, as if to titillate Alexander the Great, the Conquistador Infantino has succeeded in his bet, by putting the Heads of States and the Presidents of African Football Associations in his bag. His tireless efforts culminated in “The Rabat Agreement”, which will be ratified in Mauritania at the end of this week. Its perfect format is as follows: CAF President -Patrice Motsepe, 1^st Vice-president-Augustin Senghor, and 2nd Vice-president- Ahmed Yahya. Jacques Anouma has expressed many reservations about his possible post of Special Advisor to President Motsepe. Gianni has achieved a well-orchestrated stroke of genius, like four (4) years ago against Issa Hayatou. On March 12, 2021, the CAF Elective Assembly will only be held for the sake of form, all things having probably been completed. Sad outcome that will be cast like a perpetual restart each time it comes to the election of the CAF President.

Long time thought as the Favorite Candidate of the FIFA boss and brother-in-law of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Patrice Motsepe compensates for his shortcomings in African football policy by opening his address book, containing the names of powerful businessmen, he who sits on the board of more than thirty (30) companies. By simple asymptotic syllogism, a phone call would suffice to co-opt stinking rich sponsors to replenish empty CAF coffers since Lagardère’s departure. But it wouldn’t be the last sound of a cymbal; Habit still having the strength to get used to even the unusual, acquaintances between Patrice and Infantino are no different from those that existed in the days of Ahmed Ahmed and Constant Omari. As long as the Swiss finds nothing more to his liking, alliances will be painted off and undone, the page is closed and another is opened to start over – a g a i n! CAF will suffer and will stand still as usual, without anyone worrying about its growth.

This blindly thoughtless subjugation to FIFA and especially to Gianni Infantino, by African leaders, even at the top, is a defect amongst leaders of institutions on the continent. It is unlikely that CAF forks its paths to take the path drawn by Gianni. An astute and shrewd calculator, Gianni’s deceits would bring him victories, to regain terms as FIFA president. The sheepfold of his Panurge’s sheep, made mostly of Africans, gives him blessings whereas these Africans remain unworried by their tomorrow’s obscurantism.

With 54 Football Associations in terms of representativeness, CAF is the largest confederation and has sufficient bargaining powers to curb trends as it sees fit. Such a voting bloc does not need the blessing of Gianni Infantino for sustainability, given its numerical superiority. A CAF president who is not of Infantino obedience would be imperturbable, Infantino will always need him for re-election to FIFA presidency, and he will be forced to come to terms with him no matter what. The reduction of African Associations into underlings of Leviathan Gianni, bears testimony to the cowardice by CAF leadership, struggling to find a happy outcome from which the very CAF could play a leading role on international scene. It is necessary to reflect on a new generation of post-Infantino leaders, capable of meeting several challenges such as those of football space fragmentation, of the history and knowledge relating to football on the continent, the refounding of a CAF without infantilization, the promotion of African flair and peerless shows, and the establishment of new conditions for the profitability of its competitions and marketing, which translate into guarantees for sustainable development. It is on how to face these different challenges that the new CAF would look into in order to hold a candle to its despoilers. Here, the giant is falling asleep! Unity among continental associations is not always water tight. Like Leon Gontran Damas, “The universal superiority of the man who is not stupid than another is what I know more to be overwhelming”, CAF will never be a seed planted alongside wind mills. Once the bottom has been hit, there are no other options than rising to the surface; thus, CAF transformation which every African, wherever he is, is aspiring to, shall start taking shape.