Businessman Idriss Diallo was elected Saturday as head of the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF), in an election in the capital Yamoussoukro where former star striker Didier Drogba was eliminated in the first round.
“Is elected president of FIF for the next four years, Mr. Idriss Diallo,” said the president of the session, Mariam Dao Gabala, after the counting.
Mr. Diallo, a senior FIF official in the 2000s, received 63 votes against 61 for his rival in the second round, Sory Diabaté, another executive of the institution.
In the first round, the two men had largely overtaken Didier Drogba who had collected only 21 votes out of 130.
“I would like to congratulate Didier (Drogba) who had the courage to enter this race and who has made this election more than popular beyond our borders,” said Diallo, in the wake of his election, promising to be a “fair president.
Widely supported by the population and, according to several observers, by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Fifa, Didier Drogba failed to convince the Ivorian club presidents who constituted the overwhelming majority of voters.
He has been criticized in recent weeks for not knowing enough about local soccer and for having made a minimal campaign, without ploughing the ground sufficiently.
This election is supposed to put an end to a long crisis of governance at the head of FIF.
It had been repeatedly postponed since 2020, because of an imbroglio on the system of sponsorship of candidates that had then blocked the candidacy of Didier Drogba.
The new president of the institution, former leader of the largest national club Asec Mimosas from 1984 to 1998 will have the mission to restore color to Ivorian soccer.
The country will host the next CAN from June 23 to July 23, 2023.