The alignment and re-alignment of African federations behind either incumbent president Issa Hayatou or challenger Ahmad Ahmad in the election for president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is a seemingly ever-changing landscape of contradictions. A meeting of the sub-regional confederation, the West African Football Union (WAFU), in early February in Libreville, agreed to endorse Cameroonian Issa Hayatou in his bid to retain the presidency for an eighth term.

According to the minutes of the meeting, seen by Insideworldfootball, the meeting was attended by seven of WAFU’s 16 member associations. That included Liberia’s Musa Bility who has already declared he will be voting for Madagascar’s Ahmad. He was present at the meeting in Libreville. The meeting also endorsed the candidacy of Sierra Leone FA president Isha Johanssen for a position on CAF’s executive committee, saying that they would approach Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera with the offer of support for her FIFA Council candidacy if she stood down from the CAF exco election. A good tactic in theory but Nsekera is standing unopposed for the position of female representative on FIFA’s Council.