Kwesi Nyantakyi: Ghana FA boss thinks next FIFA president will not be European

Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi has cast doubts over the election of an European successor to Sepp Blatter as FIFA President over policies that will ‘kill football in Africa’.

Suggestions are being made all over about the best candidate suited to replace Blatter who announced he will be stepping down as FIFA President just under a week of winning a fresh four-year mandate.

The Swiss’ decision to quit the FIFA top job has been met with varied reactions with opinions still split as to whether the move is in the right direction.

While majority of member associations in Europe are rejoicing over Blatter’s imminent departure especially following the recent bribery and corruption allegations thrown at FIFA, most member associations in Africa – who stood resolutely with Blatter during the troubled congress last week – are bitterly disappointed.

Blatter remains very popular in Africa and Asia mainly for the reforms that increasingly leveled the playing field in terms of decision making and profit sharing at FIFA as against the desire of the Europe block to have a majority say due to their superior resources.

Nyantakyi in discussing the future of FIFA on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, cited planned reforms being championed by the Europeans that according to the GFA boss will ‘kill football in Africa’ as a reason why the next FIFA President is unlikely to come from the West.

“I don’t think a candidate from Europe can have enough votes from Africa and Asia to become the next FIFA President,” he said.

“The reforms being put forward by Europe is only meant to serve their interest and will kill football in Africa.

“For instance, they made a request to the FIFA Executive Committee to play friendly matches only amongst themselves.

“They have also increasingly restricting the number of African players in their leagues where in fact African players have played integral roles in making them attractive.

“These reforms were of course not accepted and so you can see clearly attempts being made by Europe to make them more powerful by crippling the other blocks.”