Kurt Okraku to contest for CAF Executive Council position

Ghana Football Association President Kurt Okraku is trying to get a measure of his popularity on the continent as he has filed to contest for a slot at the Confederation of Africa Football Executive Council.

According to Ghana Sports Online’s deep-seated sources at the Ghana FA the former Dreams FC President is yet to formally announce his intentions to most high-level officials at the Ghanaian football governing body despite officially filing his nominations forms.

Okraku, 49, has been at the helm of Ghana football for 13 months but is already aiming high with a top job at the continental level as he seeks to elevate his profile and personality within the continent’s football circles.

The CAF Executive Council slot if open to top football administrators on the African continent who have carved a niche for themselves and command the requisite skills and knowledge to develop the African game.

Meanwhile Okraku must beat off a stiffer opposition from Niger FA President Djibrilla Hima Hamidou who is nicknamed ‘Pele’ and is the President of FENIFOOT (Nigerien Football Federation) as well as the President of WAFU Zone B. Hamidou, who is favoured among African football elites, is an army Lieutenant Colonel and was successfully elected head of the West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone B in September 2018. Elite football administrators from the sub-region overly backed Hamidou for the post as he was not contested at the polls. Notably, he replaced former Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi who resigned from all football positions after he was caught in the No.12 Football Corruption expose which was premiered by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

Hamidou, a war veteran, is widely recognized and admired on the continent by many football lovers as he has come to be known as a man of peace who has traded bullets for football and is using the game as a valve to open up better livelihood for Nigeriens.

He also doubles as chairman of Nigerien side Association Sportive des Forces Armées Nigériennes AS FAN and has been a leading figure in the sub-region’s list of admirable football administrators and long years of serving at the top level makes him a tough candidate for the Ghana FA President.

In 2010 when he was ushered into the spacious executive box of the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the entire room stood up and greeted him in unison. This gesture alone from FIFA dignitaries – most of whom he hadn’t met before gave a true measure of the respect he commands among his peers even at the international level.