PINNICK’S RISE AND FALL IN AFRICA FOOTBALL

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation has gone from being the second most powerful man in African football to fighting for survival in the same confederation.
His journey to global relevance began with the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) 2014 elections. Prior to this, Pinnick cut his teeth as the head of the Delta State Football Association.
In 2016, Gianni Infantino swept to power as the head of FIFA. Change was the Swiss-Italian’s mantra, and it was seductive to the marginalised underdog, long seeking a means to shake up the established order. Africa was in a similar situation. Issa Hayatou from Cameroon had been in office as the head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for close to 30 years, and there seemed no end in sight for his perceived hegemony and despotic tendencies.
When the plan to remove Hayatou’s yoke from Africa’s neck was set in motion in 2016, Pinnick was front and centre of it, along with then Ghana Football Association boss Kwesi Nyantakyi. Pinnick went so far as to host the meeting, which was attended by Infantino along with FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura and more than 15 other African football association heads.
But neither Pinnick nor Nyantakyi were willing to stick their necks out and so Madagascar’s Ahmad was thrust forward. This was seen as a safe option as he was somewhat unknown and considered a silent member of the CAF executive. Ahmad won big, but so did Pinnick. The latter was elected to the CAF executive committee, defeating incumbent Hayatou loyalist Moucharafou Anjorin. Nyantakyi was appointed as first vice-president of the CAF.
Also in Pinnick’s favour was a sting operation conducted by Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In 2018, footage of Nyantakyi receiving a large amount of cash in dollars, reportedly $65 000 (about R850 000 at the time), from an undercover reporter posing as a businessman appeared in the journalist’s exposé called Betraying the Game. In the video, Nyantakyi also agreed to a fictitious sponsorship deal with kickbacks for one of his private business concerns. Subsequently, Nyantakyi resigned from the CAF and FIFA and was subsequently banned from all football activities for life.
This paved the way for Ahmad to appoint Pinnick as the CAF’s first vice-president “after consulting the members of the emergency committee”. Pinnick was now the second most powerful man in African football.
It appeared to pre-empt another shake-up at the top of African football, coming as it did at a time when there were few details on offer as to what was going on in Paris. It was no surprise that Ahmad was immediately suspicious of his second-in-command.
In this, Pinnick’s hubris was very much culpable. The NFF president’s penchant for tooting his own horn is inimical to strategic moves, and whereas he was able to keep a low profile when Hayatou was in play, he perhaps underestimated Ahmad.
Under investigation by the FIFA ethics committee, with his support base shrinking and his vice apparently scheming for his position, the Malagasy acted. On the eve of the 2019 AFCON final, Ahmad announced that the CAF executive committee had unanimously requested that FIFA intervene in its administration.
Samoura would be “seconded”, as it were, to the CAF to oversee its affairs and implement reforms. This decision sent shockwaves through the continent, but it was only the first act of Ahmad’s pushback.
On 18 July, in an executive committee meeting, Pinnick was removed as first vice-president, and Constant Omari and Fouzi Lekjaa were bumped up from second and third vice-president respectively. South Africa’s Danny Jordaan was appointed third vice-president, reportedly as a reward for being an informant, an allegation he stringently denies.
It would emerge after AFCON that the committee was divided over the decision to seek help from FIFA. Pinnick was reportedly against the proposal and this move of his was apparently the final straw for Ahmad.
Pinnick loyalist and former Liberia Football Association head Musa Bility filed a case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He has since been handed a 10-year ban from all football-related activities and fined $500 000 (just over R7.6 million) by the world’s governing body for the violation of sports ethics codes, challenging FIFA and in Africa football has no doubt affected Nigeria influence in Africa football as top decisions in the running of the game can no longer take a cue from Nigeria point of view. This has also affected Nigeria’s interest of hosting the last AFCON when the initial host Cameroon was dropped.
It would have been a `great economic input to the country if Nigeria had succeed in hosting the tournament as it will not doubt boost the economy and also improve the standard of our football,
Pinnick remains a member of the CAF executive committee, but has lost his power at the top of African football and will now, more than ever, his powers have been reduced.