By TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – THE decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to discipline its Southern affiliate’s President, Phillip Chiyangwa, will further antagonize strained relationships between the mother body and its entity.
Following the CAF Executive Committee meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it was announced late Tuesday the committee had recommended the CAF Disciplinary Board to proceed with the case of Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) President, Philip Chiyangwa.
According to the CAF Executive Committee, Chiyangwa, also the President of the Zimbabwe Football Association, had “multiplied actions and statements recently that appears to attack the honour of the CAF, its president and the members of the Executive Committee.”
The move arguably stems from COSAFA breaking ranks with the rest of the continent by endorsing the candidature of the Madagascan football head, Ahmad Ahmad, to challenge the long serving CAF President, Issa Hayatou, at the elections set for Thursday.
Relations between the exuberant Zimbabwean football boss and the Cameroonian strongman of African football, in power since 1988, have been rocky in recent weeks.
Chiyangwa has played a key role as Ahmad’s campaign publicist in the campaign to unseat Hayatou, pledging COSAFA’s support of Ahmad “through and through.”
The Zimbabwe football administrator is accused of destabilising CAF after his decision to invite football leaders to a party in the Zimbabwean capital Harare this week.
Hayatous is facing his biggest challenge to his decades-long grip on the leadership of CAF.

– Guardian