Nyamilandu elected to FIFA Council : Malawi FA president defeats SAFA’s Jordan to get Anglophone post  

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu has been elected for the post of African Anglophone of the FIFA Council during the elective General Assembly held on Sunday September 30 in Egypy by beating South Africa Football Association president Danny Jordaan by 35 votes to 18.

He was first up against Jordaan and Tanzanian Leodegar Tenga and Nyamilandu collected 23 votes, Jordan 16 and Tenga 14 but there was no majority.

A second round was then declared between Nyamilandu and Jordan that saw the Malawian beat the majority rule.

The FIFA Council, formerly called the FIFA Executive Committee is an institution of the world football governing body whose mandate is to make main decisions of the organization in the intervals of the FIFA Congress.

The Council is a non-executive, supervisory and strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football.

The African Anglophone position fell vacant after the resignation of Ghana Football Association president, Kwesi Nyantakyi and COSAFA nominated the three candidates.

Recently there was a section of the public that wanted to demonstrate in the streets demanding Nyamilandu’s resignation following the national team’s 0-3 loss Morocco in the ongoing 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

But he refused to bow down to that pressure, saying he will finish out his term in the next 15 months as entrusted by the FAM general assembly and that he won’t seek another term of office.

He also cleared the air by saying FIFA rules allow national associations’ members to continue as FIFA Councillors even when they relinquish their post at the expiry of their term of office.

On the part of the Flames performance, Nyamilandu said all is not lost in as far as the AFCON campaign is concerned because they have played two games in which they won one and lost the other. The Flames have three points just like Morocco and just a point behind the leaders Cameroon.

There was also calls for the resignation of  the Flames’ coach Ronny Van de Geneughden (RVG) over the team’s poor performance but Nyamilandu defended the Belgian, saying he was engaged to help build a strong team to take it to the AFCON 2019 and he has not yet failed the target he was given.

On his part, he outlined several developments he has successfully set up such  as promotion of women’s football through the launch of the FAM Women’s Leagues, integrated youth competitions with the launch of the FAM Under 15 leagues and Presidential Under 17 leagues.

And also through securing funds for the establishment of football academies, re-enforcing beach soccer, facilitating training and development of high calibre coaches under CAF A and B licence programmes and launching the programme of training Under 15 referees.

And he said once in FIFA, he shall endeavour to translate what he has experienced towards the development of African football which Malawi shall also enjoy.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!