Veron Mosengo-Omba, a former Fifa employee has been appointed as the new General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football.
Morocco’s Abdel Bah had occupied the role in an acting capacity since March 2020 until last week when he was replaced by the Swiss-Congolese.
Mosengo-Omba left his role at Fifa as Chief Member Associations officer to become CAF general secretary.
“On behalf of all of Fifa, we would like to thank Veron Mosengo-Omba for his excellent work,” said Fifa President Gianni Infantino and General Secretary Fatma Samoura in a joint statement on Saturday.
“[We] wish him the very best of luck in his next challenge as Caf General Secretary. Fifa also looks forward to working with him on future projects in helping to project African football to the summit of world football.”
Mosengo-Omba was involved in the CAF pre-election, talking to the presidential running candidates in Morocco two weeks ago. He was instrumental in convincing Motsepe’s running mates to step down and give their full support to the South African billionaire.
In the Moroccan capital Rabat, it was mooted that Patrice Motsepe would become the new Caf president with the other three assuming secondary roles.
FIFA had promised two of the candidates the position of vice president and on Saturday when the executive committee members met, Augustin Senghor and Mauritania’s Ahmed Yahya was named first and second Caf vice-president.
Senghor had said when he withdrew his candidacy that “the proposal submitted to us by Fifa, Morocco and Egypt was in the superior interest of the unity of African football”.
BBC Sport Africa had questioned FIFA on their regular visit to Africa countries. And why Mosengo-Omba and FIFA’s Deputy General Secretary Mathias Grafstrom were meeting with the candidates in Rabat on the 27-28 February, but there was no direct answer.
However, a quote by Infantino was suggested instead, with the Fifa president having said, on the 6th of March, when explaining his widespread travels across Africa:
“It is no secret that Caf has been facing some difficult times recently.
“So it is an opportunity to look forward to speak with everyone, to try to help African football in whichever way we can.
“I personally spoke with all four candidates for the presidency and many other presidents of associations, and I can certainly confirm that there is plenty of common ground between them,” he added.
Following the general assembly vote to increase vice-presidential tally from three to five, Djibouti’s Suleiman Waberi, Cameroonian Seidou Mbombo Njoya and Kanizat Ibrahim of Comoros have been appointed third, fourth and fifth vice-presidents respectively.
Kanizat Ibrahim has now become the first woman to be voted as vice-president of CAF.
