Following his long-time illness, former president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, has passed on.
The news of Hayatou’s death was reported on Thursday by the Cameroon’s news outlet strait times.
A former 400m and 800m champion of Cameroon, who served as President of CAF between 10thMarch 1988 – 16th March 2017, Hayatou died after a protracted illness in the French capital, Paris on the eve of his 78th birthday.
He was the long serving president of CAF for 29 years from 1988 until his exit in 2017.
He also served as acting FIFA president from 2015-2016 after Sepp Blatter was suspended by world football’s governing body.
He was a lifelong sports administrator and was an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from 2001-2016, after which he became an honorary member.
Hayatou, who served as Secretary of the Federation Cameroonaise de Football (FECAFOOT) in the 1970s, was elected CAF President on the margin of the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco, to take office from interim boss, Dr Abdelhalim Mohamed, who had stepped in the previous year following the death of Dr. Ydnekatchew Tessema.
Tall, energetic and visionary, Hayatou (who was born to the royal family in the northern Cameroonian town of Garoua) was also a member of the International Olympic Committee, and served as Acting President of football’s world-ruling body FIFA for 4 months and 18 days (8thOctober 2015 – 26 February 2016) following the suspension of Sepp Blatter and prior to the election of Gianni Infantino.
After 29 years in office as CAF President, Hayatou lost the bid for a fresh term in an election won by Ahmad of Madagascar at an elective Congress in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on 16th March 2017.
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