History of CAF - Tessema Names Hayatou As A Successor

Tessema Names Hayatou As A Successor

Eight months after 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Tessema explained the nature of his illness to member associations of the African Football Confederation, and successfully appealed to them to vote for Omar Sey of Gambia in his place, in the 1988 elections; which he very well knew would be after his life. A few months later, this succession plan was complicated with the unexpected appointment of Omar Sey as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Gambia. However, Ydnekatchew was not prepared to give-up, easy; when the newly appointed Minister, visited Addis Ababa for a meeting of the Organization of African Unity, in June 1987, he invited him home and made one final effort to convince him to resign from his government position and run for the presidency of the Confederation. Omar did not offend his ailing colleague with an outright no, he said he would try, but also explained the difficulty and possible implications of submitting a resignation to his Head of State. At the end of this meeting, Ydnekatchew did not take time to announce his second choice, Issa Hayatou, in defending his surprise choice; he said that though being a newcomer to the Executive Committee, Issa was still better than any other potential candidate.

Only days before he died, he invited the First Vice President Dr. Halim, and the Secretary General Moustafa Fahmy, to Addis Ababa, and repeated to both of them that Issa was now the most appropriate choice for the job. Though in vain, he also pleaded with veteran Dr. Halim, to abandon his ambition to the presidency and take the responsibility of ensuring elections, free of external influences.

It is however not known, if the early support of by then already deceased Ydnekatchew had helped Issa win his first election at the Congress in Casablanca, seven months later.