The longest serving President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, has left the stage after leading the continental football body for 30 years. The Cameroonian died at 77 in Paris, France, during the 2024 Summer Olympics Games. During his leadership of CAF, he contributed immensely to the development of African football. He brought fame to CAF and African football.
Hayatou held sway at the helm of the African football governing body from 1989 until 2017. Football lovers on the continent appreciate his effort in increasing African representatives in global football fiestas. For many decades, Africa was restricted to two slots in the mundial. Through his intervention, it was increased to two and later five in 1998. He fought hard to establish Africa as an equal to South America and Europe. The Cameroonian would also be remembered for bringing the mundial to Africa for the first time. In 2010, CAF and South Africa made history when the latter hosted the FIFA World Cup. South Africa became the automatic sixth African representative as the host nation.
His tenure at CAF was laden with laurels and records at international tournaments. For long Africa was considered an underachieving football continent despite supplying many stars to the best leagues in the world. However, the yoke was broken when the Cameroonian national football team reached the quarterfinals of the world Cup in 1990, the first time for an African country. Senegal repeated the same feat in 2002. Nigeria won Africa’s first Olympics football medal in Atlanta ‘96 while Cameroon replicated that feat in 2000.
The former CAF President was savvy and ambitious. His ambition was not just personal but a means to project African football to a global prominence. He served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for 15 years from 2001. Hayatou was also a vice president of FIFA, and its interim president for a while – October 2015 to February 2016 – when Sepp Blatter threw in the towel following a corruption scandal that incriminated many of its officials. Above all, he expanded youth, women and regional football competitions in Africa. He also doubled the number of participating countries in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), the continent’s major football showpiece, from 8 to 16. This intervention ensured that football fans around the world could watch and scout for more talents from the continent.
The Cameroonian turned the fortunes of CAF and African football during his tenure. His business negotiation skills and overall business acumen contributed to raising CAF’s revenue from $1.25 million to $130 million. He was accused of corruption on several occasions, but no investigation indicted him of any wrongdoing. New African Magazine in 2017, acknowledged that he “deployed his own substantial diplomatic and leadership skills and his wide contacts to move African soccer swiftly and surely out of the ghetto,” leading it “onto the world stage.”
We urge the current CAF leadership to improve on his legacy. Except in a few African countries, the local league is no longer attractive to football fans. Most of them are hooked to Premier League and other international leagues. This has invariably stunted the growth and development of African football. The local leagues should be made more attractive to retain our talented players. The brain drain in football in Africa will kill the game if not checked forthwith. CAF should liaise with corporate bodies to invest more in African football. No doubt, he wanted to bring African football at par with the best leagues in the world. That dream did not materialize. Unfortunately, African football is still suffering from infrastructural and funding challenges.
Embarrassingly, some African countries are having their international matches in other countries because of lack of standard stadia. Africa should be planning to host another FIFA World Cup. South Africa did Africa proud by hosting the 2010 edition. Tournaments like the mundial improve the economies of host countries and infrastructure, which can be used for other sporting activities. Many African countries have not been doing well in sports due to lack of standard sports infrastructure.
Hayatou hailed from a royal family in Garoua in northern Cameroon. His elder brother, Sadou Hayatou, was a one-time Prime Minister of Cameroon in the 1990s. He was born on Aug. 9, 1946, in Garoua and later became on outstanding sports administrator. Aside from playing football, he was the national champion of Cameroon in 400 and 800 meters. He was also a footballer and a member of the country’s national basketball team. In 1982, he became Cameroon’s national sports director, and the President of CAF.