The Confederation of African Football’s Executive Committee said on 6 August it had unanimously reconfirmed its support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Investigative journalist Romain Molina, reporting for Sport News Africa, has since put a number on that unanimity: four.

The four who went on the record before or around the meeting were CAF president Patrice Motsepe, first vice-president Fouzi Lekjaa of Morocco, Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Souleiman Waberi of Djibouti. The rest of the ExCo, according to Molina’s reporting, stayed silent. Kurt Okraku, the Ghana FA president and a CAF vice-president, was one of the notable absences.

Molina reported that officials inside the confederation privately expressed surprise at the gap between the wording of the CAF communiqué and what actually happened in the room. Several who had been expected to speak in Infantino’s favour did not.

Why silence, not dissent

The silence has more than one cause. Molina points to fear of FIFA’s Ethics Committee, which can suspend federation officials, and to the funding dependency that ties smaller associations to FIFA development money. A public break is expensive. A wait-and-see position is not.

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Motsepe himself hinted at the calculation a week after the meeting. Speaking on 13 August, the CAF president told reporters that the FIFA presidency should be settled at the ballot box, not by continental communiqués.

“Elections are taking place next year. We should allow that process to continue and let the 211 members decide. If there are candidates who want to stand against him, put up their names. That’s the right thing.”

That is a softer position than the personal endorsement Motsepe gave in July, when he called Infantino “loyal to Africa” and said he would not stab a loyal friend in the back.

Africa’s 54 votes, one at a time

FIFA’s Congress has 211 member associations, and each casts its own ballot. Confederations can lobby and recommend, but they do not control how their members vote. Africa’s 54 associations are the single largest continental group, but they are 54 individual votes, not a bloc CAF hands over.

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That distinction now matters. UEFA’s members voted to boycott FIFA tournaments if Infantino pursued plans to sell commercial rights in the World Cup to private investors, and maintained the threat even after he withdrew the proposal in early August. The FIFA president has apologised for the process but not walked away from the wider project.

The 77th FIFA Congress is scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat. Between now and then, “unanimous” is a claim, not a vote count.

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