It is a great disappointment that Algeria has just suffered through its “diplomatic football”, if one can call it that.
Indeed, last Thursday during the session of the ordinary general assembly of the African Football Confederation (CAF) which was held in the presence of the presidents of FIFA and CAF Gianni Infantino and Patrice Motsepe and Fouzi Lakjaa member of the FIFA Council and chairman of the CAF Finance Committee, the candidate, Djahid Zefizef, president of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF), was unable to join the CAF Executive Committee (Comex) of the region (UNAF).
He lost by KO in the first round during the vote which took place that same day in the Ivorian capital against the Libyan, Abdulhakim Al Shelmani (Libya) who suddenly succeeded himself with 38 votes against 15. Al Shelmani to the occasion doing better than in the previous vote (2019) where he had collected in front of a member of the Federal Bureau of the FAF, Amar Bahloul, 29 votes against 24. Libya, is back for a second term 2023-2027. The last Algerian to have succeeded in integrating the executive of CAF is Mohamed Raouraoua.
Since then, it has been a vacuum to the great Dam of the senile regime of Algiers who apply in vain for each candidacy. The latter only saw in their last try, a Libyan benefiting from aggressive Moroccan lobbying to be able to keep his place in the CAF Comex.
For the “Cabranate”, it is an open secret, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) would have weighed with all his weight in this “unfair” decision. Fouzi Lakjaa fought on all fronts so that Algeria could not sit on the Comex.
This one, moreover, will not have undergone any major change, it is still the Senegalese Master Augustin Senghor (UFOA A), a professional judge who will chair him for a second successive term. He will be accompanied in his mission by elected or re-elected members, the Gabonese Pierre Mouguengui (UNIFAC), the Togolese Gbezonde Kossi Akpovy (UFOA B), Walter Nyamilandu Manda (COSAFA), the Sudanese Mutassim Gafa (CECAFA) and the Libyan Abdulhakim Al Shelmani (UNAF) as it happens.
As soon as the sentence was pronounced, the official commentator and no less debtor of overflowing sports nonsense on dictated political imbecilities, the Algerian Hafid Derradji tweeted his rage. “Those who believe that winning a place in CAF and FIFA depends on the diplomacy of the country to which the candidate belongs are deluding themselves. Let them know that Libya has been suffering from a political and security crisis for years”. One would be tempted to say and yet… Algeria too, the proof by 38/15.
This setback should in any case cost the ill-appointed president of the FAF and his team, Chenegriha will take care of it. The poor man, in his senile rantings about a “new Algeria” was betting on the victory of his “foal” by 34 votes.
But in the story of giving back to Caesar what belongs to him, let’s pay tribute to the president of the FRMF, who since he became president has been able to shape the image of a powerful leader of national football through efforts that have allowed Morocco to rise among the great nations in the world of sport. This is called effective and winning sports diplomacy. It is not for nothing if he is elected here and there to the World Football Bodies. No, he’s not unknown to the battalion.
Both at CAF and at FIFA he is in his jargon and the guy has nothing left to prove to anyone and especially not to the senile in childbirth, next door. He is one of the best ministers in the Kingdom, an outstanding ambassador and representative of the sporting image of Morocco, so much so that we bite our fingers in the neighborhood where the man gives nightmares . He is a man of strong, just and fair decisions that the barkers East of Eden do not have.
Fouzi Lakjaa has applied the royal directives on football wonderfully. Under his or her mandates (we do not change a winning team), the Kingdom has modernized and built sports infrastructures that many countries are jealous of and developed football through its restructuring, several sports academies have been created to great delight of this beloved sport. In football we only remember the results, no offense to the FAF and others.