History of CAF - Senegal Call For Change

Senegal Call For Change

FIFA President Rous was at the assembly in Yaoundé, as well as 28 national associations. A proposal by Senegal for an Ad-Hoc committee to prepare a technical development programme that will help raise the standard of refereeing on the continent was approved. The proposed amendments to the statutes were adopted by the assembly following the support of 22 of the associations present.

Considering the noticeable interference by some elements from within and outside of the continent, who were striving to exploit this misunderstanding to further divide and weaken the Confederation, and thereby disrupt the necessary unity for the then nearly accomplished tasks of expelling Apartheid South Africa from FIFA, and achieving Africa's rightful places in the global body, Ydnekatchew Tessema, preferred not to publicize the works of the Ad-Hoc Committee. The situation was handled as an internal problem of the African Football Confederation that can only be resolved by its own general meeting.

Accordingly, the new statutes, quietly and cautiously, drafted by this Ad-Hoc committee, were submitted to the Congress in Yaoundé. The assembly refused to discuss the amendments in detail and again empowered Ydnekatchew to preside over a new sub-committee entrusted with double checking the recommended changes. This committee worked until four o'clock in the morning and presented the final version to the Congress the next day.

The Congress in turn worked until five O'clock in the morning and adopted the new constitution of the Confederation. After two sleepless nights, the legislative for the first time asserted that it is in effect the supreme authority of the Confederation.