Let FIFA reforms reflect in Africa — Prez Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has impressed on world football Chief Gianni Infantino to ensure that the reforms he has embarked on at FIFA and generally in world football find practical expression in the administration of football across Africa.
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He also asked that FIFA should consider giving Africa 10 slots at the World Cup when the global competition is expanded from 32 to 48 teams, effective the 2026 tournament.
The President said reforms initiated by the FIFA boss to ensure more transparency and improved corporate governance in world football had the full support of Ghana as it would bequeath African football with “a more vibrant authority and organisation.”
The FIFA president was in Ghana on a one-day working visit to meet major stakeholders in Ghana football and later interacted with the media before rounding off his trip with a brief tour of the Accra Sports Stadium.
Welcoming Infantino and a delegation of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), led by its President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, to the Flagstaff House last Monday, President Akufo-Addo said he was particularly happy that the FIFA boss had made the development of African football a top priority, first with the appointment of a Senegalese, Fatma Samoura, as General Secretary of football’s world governing body, as well as Ghanaian Supreme Court Judge, Justice Anim Yeboah, onto the adjudicating body of FIFA’s Ethics Committee.
“We are very happy about the commitment made to develop African football. Ghana joins the calls for 10 slots for Africa. We think it is fair and equitable,” said President Akufo-Addo who described himself as a football fanatic who leads a football-mad nation”.
Infantino, who celebrated one year in office last Sunday, said his commitment to African football was not a lip service, but an action-oriented pledge to ensure the development of the game on the continent which had contributed so much to world football.
“Before I became president, I had pledged that the next General Secretary of FIFA would not be an European. My first General Secretary is from Senegal, Fatma Samoura, a lady with a lot of experience working for the United Nations in Africa,” said the Swiss-Italian.
During his interaction with the media at the FA secretariat, Infantino said as proof of his commitment to football development on the continent, FIFA had increased its annual support from $27 million to $94 million with the GFA and other African FAs expected to enjoy a financial support of $1.25 million of which $500,000 will be for administrative work and $750,000 directed at specific projects.
Significantly, Infantino said FIFA funding would be tied to good governance and transparency, including the publication by FAs of their annual accounts, among other criteria.