The Madagascar Football Federation (FMF) has formally entered the race for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidency, paving way for incumbent Ahmad Ahmad to seek a 2nd term.
Elections into the office hold in March 2021.
Ahmad, 60, who was elected CAF President in 2017 was formally entered into the race by FMF in fulfillment of CAF rules which require any candidate to be nominated by his own association.
“I accepted to be a candidate while listening to the presidents of the federation, around 46 of whom asked me after receiving my assessment of my initial mandate,” Ahmad said.
Ahmad is deciding to stand again despite being the subject of an ongoing Fifa ethics enquiry, which has the potential to derail his bid and throw March’s elections wide open.
“As I have previously announced, I said I would pursue a second mandate if the need was there,” he explained.
Last week, all but eight federations on the continent gave their backing to the Malagasy to run again.
“This is an outcome of working together, of management which involves everybody, which has been happening since 2017,” he said.
At present, Ahmad is the sole candidate to have submitted a candidacy during the registration period, which ends on 12 November, since FIFA Council member Tarek Bouchamoui, who had wanted to run, has effectively been blocked from running by the Tunisian FA.
A bid could come from Nigeria FA boss Amaju Pinnick who refused to rule himself out of the race last month.
“It’s always good during an election to have a rival candidate, but we wait,” said Ahmad.
“I know that some people are awaiting other things unrelated to the elections – but as for the elections themselves, they all know they cannot beat me given I represent a group of people who want to go forward together.”