Issa Hayatou was on Sunday unanimously re-elected President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for a new term that runs until 2017.
Hayatou, 66, ran unopposed at the 35th ordinary General Assembly of the continental body held in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Hayatou was elected head of the African Confederation for the first time in 1988 in Morocco, on the sidelines of the African Cup of Nations football competition.
Jacques Anouma of Cote d’Ivoire wanted to oppose Hayatou at this CAF congress, but a change to the election rules disqualified him.
Anouma’s attempt to overturn the decision to disqualify non-executive members from the election was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
CAS ruled on March 5 that the CAF Executive Committee had jurisdiction to refuse Anouma’s candidature which the CAF Statutes adopted in September 2012.
The statutes, according to CAS, were applicable in assessing the validity of the candidates in the presidential election.
Issa Hayatou
CAS added that Anouma did not meet these criteria because he had never been a member of the CAF Executive Committee.
Hayatou, who already declared that this would be his last contest for the CAF presidency, is the fifth CAF president and by far the longest serving.
His predecessors are Ethiopian Ydnekatchew Tessema, who served 15 years, Egyptian Abdel Aziz Moustafa (10 years), Sudanese Abdel Halim Mohammad (5 years) and Egyptian Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem (1 year).
Among those who attended the opening were the presidents of the 54 national associations and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Blatter hailed Hayatou’s leadership of African football over the last quarter of a century, saying that African football had become world famous and made commendable strides during this period.
He also commended Morocco for the continued development of its football infrastructure, including the recent launching of its professional league.
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