Therefore, during the World Cup in Mexico,
eight months later, he explained the nature of his illness
to member associations
of the African Football Confederation,
and
successfully appealed to
them to vote for Omar Sey of
the Gambia in his place, in the
1988 elections;
which he very well knew would be after his life.
With
Omar Sey
A few months later,
this succession plan was complicated with the unexpected appointment
of Omar Sey as the Minster of Foreign Affairs of the Gambia.
However,
Yidnekatchew was not
prepared to
give-up, easy; when
the newly appointed
Minister, visited Addis Ababa for
a
meeting of
the Organization of African Unity, in June of 1987,
he
invited him home and made one final effort to convince him to resign
from his Government position and run for the Presidency of the
Confederation.
Omar did not offend his ailing colleague with an
outright no, he
said he would try, but
also explained the difficulty and possible implications
of submitting a
resignation to his Head of State.
At the end of this meeting,
Yidnekatchew did not take time to announce his second choice, Issa Hayatou,
in
defending his surprise choice; he said, “Though a new comer to the
Executive Committee, Issa is still
better than any other potential candidate”.
With
new comer
Issa Hayatou
Only days
before he passed away, he invited the First Vice President Dr. Halim,
and the Secretary General Mustafa Fahmy, to Addis Ababa, and repeated
to both of them that Issa was now the most appropriate choice for
the job. Though in vain, he also pleaded with veteran Dr. Halim, to abandon his ambition
to the Presidency and take the responsibility of ensuring
elections, free of external influences. It
is however not known, if the early support of by then already
deceased Yidnekatchew had helped Issa win his first election at the
Congress in Casablanca, seven months later.
Dr.
Halim & Engineer Mustapha in Addis, just days before he passed away.
Thus, after working with
all the three Presidents in the first fifteen years, and holding the
presidency for the second fifteen years; Yidnekatchew had the
opportunity to briefly observe his eventual successor Issa Hayatou.
He
had also worked with all the four Secretary Generals in the
Confederation's 50years history. The current Secretary General, Mustapha Fahmy, was his own choice for the job.
Mustapha became Secretary General in 1982, despite the
protest of many in the Executive, who believed, he was at
the time too young for the responsibility. Yidnekatchew used to remember this
incident, as the only time he imposed his will on the Executive
Committee.
Young
Mustapha in 1982.
As can be seen in the
above lines, Yidnekatchew Tessema was not only about the first thirty years
of the African Football Confederation;
his preferred successor is still the President for nearly twenty years
now, and the Secretary General he picked in 1982, has maintained
his position to this day. Nonetheless,
he would have differed with his successor on the now retracted permission to promote
Tobacco during the Confederation’s tournaments; as well as on the
premature increase of the Nations Cup finalists from eight to
sixteen.
Sponsors
of C.A.F.
tournaments, started
nagging the Executive Committee with these two demands as far back as the beginning of the 1980s. Their
sole objective was evidently
the huge income they would generate from Tobacco advertisement,
and
from more
air time for publicities
in
increased matches in the
Nations Cup finals.
