Patrice Motsepe elected president of CAF
Patrice Motsepe has been officially announced as the president of the African Football governing body for four years.
On Friday, Patrice Motsepe became president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) when the South African ran unopposed in elections in Morocco.
Motsepe became the new president of the organization in its 43rd Ordinary General Assembly in Rabat.
Motsepe won the election following the withdrawal of other contenders; Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane, the president of the Mauritanian football federation; Augustin Senghor, the Senegalese federation president, and Jack Anoma the president of the Ivory coast federation.
The Mamelodi Sundowns owner and ninth richest man in Africa has been backed by FIFA's president Gianni Infantino, who is believed to have supervised a deal to guarantee Motsepe's victory, as other candidates have been asked to pull out of the race in return for being granted positions at CAF.
Who is Patrice Motsepe?
Motsepe takes charge of CAF after the unfinished reign of the former overthrown president Ahmad Ahmad, who was accused of corruption and embezzlement and was subsequently handed a five-year ban from all football-related activities by FIFA that was later reduced to two years by CAS.
Ahmad was also deprived of running for the presidency as a result of him being found guilty of breaching four separate articles of FIFA’s ethics code.
Patrice Motsepe is Africa's ninth richest man and is among the three richest people in his homeland South Africa. He has been the owner of the South African club Mamelodi Sundowns since 2003. The most significant spell for the club under his supervision was winning the CAF champions league title in 2016.
Motsepe’s fortune is estimated to be at around 2.1 billion dollars as he was the first African to make it to the Forbes rich list. He is also the founder of Rainbow minerals and the non-executive chairman of one of the largest gold companies called Harmony gold.