Mwendwa ready to rumble after cleared to contest FIFA post

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa believes he has the aptness to convince other federation bosses to vote him in as FIFA Council member after his candidature was approved Wednesday.

The FIFA Review Committee cleared Mwendwa for the Council position alongside 13 others and the FKF boss has vowed to up his campaigns as he eyes to become the first Kenyan football administrator to clinch the FIFA’s most influential position.

Mwendwa is facing off with six other contestants from the English-speaking countries where two slots are up for grabs at the March 12 polls to be held in Morocco.

“The battle lines have been drawn and I believe I’ve what it takes to convince other presidents to vote me in and this will be a give and take situation because I’m also a voter. I’ve been in football leadership for five years and I know the other leaders will elect me because of the good football management I’ve shown in those years.

“If I win this seat, it will be a big plus for Kenya and by extension East Africa because this is a decision making body and it’s very powerful and having me there it means more goodies will come to Kenya,” Mwendwa told Citizen Digital.

Other presidents eyeing the Anglophone region Council position are Andrew Kamanga of Zambia, Wallace Karia from Tanzania and Malawi’s Walter Nyamilandu.

The rest are Amaju Pinnick, the president of Nigerian Football Federation and Lamin Kaba Bajo, the president of Gambia Football Federation.

The world football governing body reserves seven Council positions for Africa – two for French-speaking members, two for English-speaking countries, one automatic slot for the Caf president, one for an Arabic-speaking country and one general slot.

Meanwhile, Mwendwa has failed to reveal his preferred candidate in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential race.

Mwendwa’s 2016 choice Ahmad Ahmad was banned last November from all football-related activities for a period of five years due to financial misconduct hence being locked out automatically from defending his seat.

“We’ll agree as a region on who will back for the presidential elections so until I meet my colleagues from this region and agree, for now I have no choice,” he revealed.

Those who have been approved for the CAF president and FIFA vice-president seat are South African Patrice Thlopane Motsepe, Ivorian Jacques Bernard Daniel Anouma who is also a former Fifa Executive Committee member, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya and Senegal’s Augustin Emmanuel Senghor.