Kwabena Yeboah, Editor of the private bi-weekly ‘Africa Sports’ could not fathom what was happening in the CAF Awards nite in Johannesburg on 16 April 2002 as he watched Sammy Kuffour shockingly lose Africa’s football best individual prize. Back in Accra he could not contain what he saw and heard, bursting out in a favourite column:

For heaven’s sake Issa Hayatou and his cronies on the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) must have a modicum of respect for fairplay, justice and credibility. Anyway, what does FIFA’s continued sermon on fairplay and transparency mean to CAF’s executive? Total noise in the ear I believe so.

Let’s get this straight: Issa Hayatou and his men wish to tell Africa and the rest of the world that Senegalese star El Hadj Abdou Diouf deserves to be Africa best player for 2001? God bless them all! Yes, I’m not only shocked disappointed and irked by CAF’s decision. I feel scandalised and justifiably angry at the kind of thievery that went on at the Sandton Convention Centre where CAF unashamedly robbed Samuel Osei Kufuor of what was due him.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not mad because Diouf managed to pull a fast one on Kufour. Far from that. In sports, it’s bad to be a bad loser and in every competition, it is inevitable that there will be winners and losers. And if FIFA’s regular sermon on fairplay has any meaning to us, we must all learn to be good losers.

Clearly, therefore, my beef isn’t with the fact that Diouf simply won. Football being what it is, we are bound to have divergent opinions on issues. At worst therefore, we agree to disagree. Folks, my source of anger is with the fact that there was pure stealing Tuesday 16 April 2002 in Johannesburg. What are the facts from fiction?

The voting for the CAF Footballer of the Year 2001 ended in December 2001. This was confirmed by Emmanuel Maradas, a member of the CAF media committee and managing editor of the most authoritative African Soccer magazine, who was present at the ceremony. One of the three MC’s for the night and a core operative at CAF confirmed to me before the evening that CAF’s top brass had altered Kuffour’s award hours before the ceremony.

As at noon last Tuesday Kuffour was still the winner until CAF’s mafia pulled late strings to change it all. Now this is the evidence. The Sowetan, a leading South African newspaper and one of the sponsors of the event had received confirmation the morning of event that Kuffour was the winner. They had subsequently proceeded to interview him while CAF itself made available the Footballer of the Year trophy.

The Sowetan had decided to take those pictures on time for their Wednesday edition because they could not actually wait for the CAF event which was a late night event and therefore, difficult to be captured for early Wednesday morning. (The event ended past midnight).

Point No. 2: Hayatou had sent for Kuffour earlier in the day and congratulated him for winning CAF’s most prestigious award, sharing jokes with him. Kuffour himself will confirm this.

Point No. 3: Before the event, CAF had indicated that they did not want their topmost award winner to be absent on the night. They had therefore sent three dates to Kuffour to pick a suitable one to ensure he was present. None of this was done for El Hadj Diouf and E’to Fils.

Now brace yourself for more shocking revelations: An inside source at CAF confirmed to me before the programme commenced, approaches had been CAF “top shots” to join them alter the winner for “good reasons”. The source opposed the move with vehemence. Later these “mafiamen” tried to come out with a joint winner, which was again resisted. It was explained that having failed to convince others to go along with them, the mafia proceeded to effect the change despite the dangers and consequences of their actions; what it meant for their credibility and image, even as Hayatou himself intensified his campaign for the FIFA top shot.

Now can we think aloud? The year under review as you might be all too familiar with say Kuffour aid Bayern Munich, one of the leading clubs in the world win the bundesliga, the European championship, which is the world’s ultimate club competition as well as the world Super Cup in Japan. He was the only African in a list of 50 best players of Europe for 2001 put together by a cream of world journalists. What else should a man do? Win the world championship on moon?

With no disrespect for Diouf, exactly what were his highpoints of achievement? That he aided Senegal qualify for World Cup? Come on (apologies to Kweku Baako Jnr) tell me something more convincing, other than qualify for the world cup. They have not yet been to the World Cup and made an impact, they have only qualified alongside 32 other contestants.

Now somebody better tell me – what did Senegal do that Tunisia, South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria did not do to qualify for the World Cup? CAF simply can’t be serious. As somebody remarked at the Convention Centre last Tuesday, if Hayatou would supervise such thievery and wretchedness at CAF, what business has he got to infect FIFA with such decadence? The mess would first have to be cleared at home, with all due respect, sir!