Issa Hayatou, the long-time leader of African football who was made interim president of FIFA during its corruption crisis in 2015, died on Thursday. He was 77. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in an Instagram post, “Saddened to hear of the passing of former CAF president, former FIFA president and interim, FIFA vice-president and FIFA Council member Issa Hayatou. A passionate sports fan, he dedicated his life to sports administration. On behalf of FIFA, condolences go to his family, friends, former colleagues and all who knew him. Rest in peace.”
Hayatou also was a member of the International Olympic Committee for 15 years, through 2016, and remained an honorary member. He died in Paris while the city hosted the Olympics. Though a national champion runner in track and field, it was in football that Hayatou rose to power and influence from his native Cameroon. He was elected to lead the Confederation of African Football in 1988 and within four years was a vice president of the world football body FIFA.
In 2002, during a period of deep financial and political turmoil at FIFA, Hayatou challenged then-president Sepp Blatter in an election he would lose heavily despite support for him in Europe. The 139-56 result showed Hayatou had lost votes from his African colleagues. Blatter still led FIFA in 2015 when federal investigations in the United States and Switzerland of alleged corruption in international football swept a generation of leaders from North and South America out of office, and eventually Blatter himself.
Hayatou took over from his one-time rival as an interim president for four months, to steer FIFA toward anti-corruption reforms and an election that put Infantino in office. In 2017, Hayatou’s 29-year reign as the head of CAF ended in an election he lost to Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar, who had been supported by Infantino. Hayatou then faced an investigation by FIFA’s ethics committee, and in 2021 was banned from football for one year for alleged breach of “duty of loyalty” in a commercial rights deal at CAF.
In a separate case, he was reprimanded by the IOC ethics commission in 2011 for having taken a cash payment from a Swiss marketing agency, ISL, in 1995 when it sold World Cup broadcasting rights to FIFA. Hayatou was born into a distinguished Cameroon family, and his brother Sadou was prime minister of the national government in 1991-92.
