Early life Issa Hayatou was born in
Garoua, in what was then
French Cameroon, on 9 August 1946, the son of a local Sultan, and became a
middle-distance runner and physical education teacher. Hayatou had a successful career as an athlete, becoming a member of the Cameroonian national squads in both Basketball and Athletics, and holding national record times in the 400- and 800-metre running.
Presidency of CAF In 1974, aged just 28, he became Secretary General of the
Cameroonian Football Federation, and Chair of the FA in 1986. As chair, he was chosen the same year to sit on the CAF Executive Committee. Following the retirement of Ethiopia's
Ydnekatchew Tessema from the CAF presidency in August 1987, Hayatou was elected as the fifth president in the body's history. He lost his seventh re-election campaign to
Ahmad Ahmad in March 2017. President of CAF for almost three decades, Hayatou oversaw particularly successful
FIFA World Cup appearances by Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and pushed for African places in the finals to increase from two to five, with the
2010 World Cup in South Africa seeing the hosts garner an automatic sixth spot for an African team. Hayatou presided over both the bid and the organising committee for the 2010 games, the first in Africa. The African Cup of Nations finals expanded from 8 to 16 teams, in a confederation of over 50 nations in six zones and five regional confederations. Club competitions have undergone a similar growth in both numbers and scale, with more clubs participating in the African Cup of Champions Clubs, the CAF Confederation Cup (begun in 2004 for national cup winners and high-placed league teams), the CAF Cup, and the CAF Super Cup. There has also been an expansion outside men's football, with the CAF overseeing youth, women's, futsal, and beach soccer competitions.
Relations with UEFA and FIFA One of the major aims of Hayatou's presidency in the late 1990s was to provide incentives to African football clubs which would stem the flow of African players to Europe; an initiative which met with little success. Hayatou couched some criticism of the uneven flow of football 'resources' in colonial terms, saying that "rich countries import the raw material – talent – and often send their less valuable technicians", an implied criticism of foreign coaching staffs employed by most African national sides. A September 1997 initiative negotiated by Hayatou with
UEFA saw the payment of fees to African governing bodies and clubs for African-born players working in Europe. This was followed by the Meridian Project signed in December 1997 with UEFA, which was to provide cash payments to African National Associations every other year, and created the
UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup. The 1999 Goal Project created with FIFA gives 46 African FAs financial support worth one million dollars over four years. Blatter, supported by the American and Asian confederations, defeated Hayatou by 139 votes to 56.
2010 Togo suspension Just days before the end of the 2010 African Cup in
Angola, Hayatou found himself in the middle of a controversy after the CAF's suspension of the
Togo national football team from the next two African Cup of Nations tournaments. Hayatou charged the Togolese government with interference in the Togolese Football Association's affairs when the team withdrew from the 2010 cup prior to its start. The Togolese team was
attacked on 8 January 2010 while travelling to Angola by bus prior to the start of the Cup, leaving three dead and nine wounded among the Togo delegation. Togolese team captain
Emmanuel Adebayor and manager
Hubert Velud criticized Hayatou in particular for the CAF decision, calling on him to resign from the CAF presidency.
Corruption allegations In November 2010
Andrew Jennings, the presenter of
FIFA's Dirty Secrets, an edition of
BBC's flagship current affairs programme
Panorama alleged that Hayatou had taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of contracts for the sale of television rights to the football
World Cup. Panorama claimed to have obtained a document from a company called ISL which showed that Hayatou was paid 100,000
French Francs by the company. ISL won the contract to distribute the television rights. The IOC announced it would investigate Hayatou, due to his membership of the organisation.
Olympic committee confusion On 21 September 2011, it was announced that FIFA had appointed Hayatou President of FIFA's Olympic committee and approved his role as chairman of the Goal Bureau. Hayatou had previously headed FIFA's Olympic committee from 1992 to 2006. At the time of his appointment, Hayatou was still under investigation for alleged
bribery. It was later denied by FIFA that Hayatou had been appointed President of the Olympic committee; his apparent appointment was described as "a technical error".
Presidency of FIFA Following the 2015 FIFA corruption case and subsequent removal of Blatter, Hayatou took charge of FIFA as acting president until 26 February 2016, when
Gianni Infantino was elected to the position.
Death Hayatou died at the
American Hospital of Paris in
Neuilly-sur-Seine, on 8 August 2024, a day before his 78th birthday. ==Personal life==