A member of the FIFA Council, Amaju Pinnick has given his opinion on the removal of language barrier in voting for African representatives on the FIFA Council, Sports247 reports.
Ahead of the FIFA Council election in Africa which is scheduled to take place on March 12 in Cairo will be very different from the past FIFA Council elections after CAF congress voted for the removal of languages in voting for FIFA Council members at the 46th CAF General Assembly held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Reacting to the development, the former Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick said, the removal of the language barrier in the voting process leading to the emergence of Africa representative on the FIFA Council will provide a level playing field which will end up producing the best for the continent.
“It was a conventional decision to remove the bottleneck of ethnicity and allow the best five to represent Africa no matter where they come from.”
” If the best five comes from the Anglophone region, so be it. If they come from the Arab zone, that is alright. They are all representing Africa,” Pinnick observed.
Pinnick who is also a CAF Executive Committee member is seeking a re election into council, will be competing with nine other candidates to battle for the five tickets at stake as the sixth seat is reserved for a woman.
The former NFF President will face stiff opposition nos from Hany Abou Rida (Egypt) who is seeking re-election; Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco) is also seeking re-election; Yahia Ahmed (Mauritania); Souleiman Waberi (Djibouti);
Others are Idriss Dialli (Cote d’Ivoire); Mathurin Chakus (Benin Republic); Augustine Senghor (Senegal); Djibrilla Pele Hamidou (Niger Republic); and Andrew Kamanga (Zambia).
