Pinnick humiliated by Ahmad in Cairo
Nigerian Football Association (NFF) President and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) First vice President was embarrassed and humiliated by Ahmad Ahmad during the continental body’s special sitting in Sharm El Sheik in Egypt last week.
The highly respected Amaju Pinnick who is also the CAF African Nations Cup Organizing Committee chairman was supposed to have welcomed the FIFA President Gianni Infantino who was a special guest at the gathering in terms of the organization’s protocol.
However, CAF President Ahmad is alleged to have turned his senior vice President into a lame duck by changing the rules and instead called up the third vice President and Morocco Football Association President Faouzi Lekjaa to welcome Infantino.
The decision to snub Pinnick is alleged to have stemmed from the fact that the Nigerian had received the Carriculum Vitae’s of all the contestants and after thoroughly assessisng their capabilities, recommended South African Football Association (SAFA) President Danny Jordaan as the candidate to be voted into the FIFA Council at the same meeting.
But, according to our sources, Ahmad who was against the election of Jordaan, and had campaigned for Malawi’s Walter Nyamilandu Manda instead, refused to listen to recommendations by his immediate deputy by throwing protocol out of the window and snubbed the most senior member of his cabinet, in what observers described as an attempt “to put Pinnick in his place and show who is boss” of the CAF.
To further add salt to injury, Ahmad deliberately left Pinnick in Cairo and jumped into a special jet that took him to Cameroon to visit the Central African country’s head of State Paul Biya to discuss further developments around the hosting of the 2019 African Nations Cup.
“As if humiliating Pinnick the previous day was not enough,” said our source, “leaving him behind to visit Cameroon when everybody knows that Pinnick is both the chairman of the Organizing Committee and Inspection Committee was the ultimate in humiliation.”
Pinnick, who was not reachable on his mobile, but a diplomat through and through, is alleged to be deeply disappointed and hurt by how he had been treated by Ahmad during the meeting in Cairo, especially after playing a key role in the same man dethroning long serving Issa Hayatou in Ethiopia nearly two years ago.
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