19 Facts About Issa Hayatou

Issa Hayatou was born on 9 August 1946 and is a Cameroonian sports executive, former athlete and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football between 1988 and 2017.

Issa Hayatou served as the acting FIFA president until 26 February 2016 as previous president Sepp Blatter was banned from all football-related activities in 2015 as a part of the that year's FIFA corruption investigation.

Issa Hayatou is a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Issa Hayatou was born in Garoua, Cameroon on 9 August 1946, the son of a local Sultan, and became a middle distance runner and physical education teacher.

Issa 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-meter running.

The Issa Hayatou family are traditional holders of the sultanate of Garoua.

Issa Hayatou was son of the reigning sultan, and many relatives have acceded to powerful positions in Cameroonian society.

The Issa Hayatou family continue to wield much political influence in northern Cameroon.

Issa Hayatou lost his seventh re-election campaign to Ahmad Ahmad in March 2017.

President of CAF for almost three decades, Issa Hayatou has overseen 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.

Mr Issa Hayatou has presided over both the bid and the organising committee for the 2010 games, the first in Africa.

In November 2010 Andrew Jennings, the presenter of FIFA's Dirty Secrets, an edition of BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama alleged that Issa 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 Issa Hayatou was paid 100,000 French Francs by the company.

Issa Hayatou has denied the allegations, saying that the money went not to him but to CAF.

Just days before the end of the 2010 African Cup in Angola, Issa Hayatou found himself in the middle of a controversy after the CAF's suspension of Togo national football team from the next two African Cup of Nations.

Issa 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.

Issa Hayatou had previously headed FIFA's Olympic committee from 1992 to 2006.

At the time of his appointment, Issa Hayatou was still under investigation for alleged bribery.

On 3 November 2007, Issa Hayatou was awarded an honorary degree from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria.