Hayatou unopposed for another four years

It sets him up to lengthen his tenure at the helm of African football to almost 30 years since his election to the post in 1988, but there is still a chance he may yet face a rival in the elections next year.
 
CAF have disallowed the candidacy of rival Jacques Anouma because he does not meet the new criteria for presidential candidates. But the Ivory Coast politician is expected to launch a legal bid to overturn the decision and be allowed to stand at the next CAF Congress in Marrakech, Morocco on March 10.
 
The 66-year-old Hayatou, anticipating the threat of Anouma’s bid and seeking to head off the possibility of a battle at the ballot box, engineered a change in the organisation’s statutes to permit only voting members of its executive committee to run for the presidency.
 
The change was overwhelmingly approved at special CAF Congress, arranged solely for the purpose of amending the rules, in the Seychelles in September.
 
Anouma is a member of CAF’s executive committee only because he serves as one the continent’s representatives on the FIFA executive and he does not have any voting powers in CAF matters.
 
Hayatou, from Cameroon, has long had an iron grip on African football and if successful in his latest bid will continue in charge until 2017.