Football Association of Malawi (Fam) president Walter Nyamilandu failed to retain his Fifa Council member seat after he was comprehensively beaten by Nigerian Amaju Pinnick during Confederation of African Football (Caf) elections held in Rabat, Morocco yesterday.
Nyamilandu secured eight votes whereas Pinnick got 43 to win the Anglophone bloc seat.
The Fam president competed against Pinnick after four other contestants Andrew Kamanga from Zambia, Lamin Baba Bajo (Gambia), Nicholas Mwendwa (Kenya) and Wallace Karia (Tanzania) pulled out of the race.
Out of the 54 member associations, 52 federations attended the general assembly. Chad and Eritrea did not attend the meeting after their respective associations were disbanded by their governments.
For losing the Fifa Council member post, he has missed benefits including a K16.6 million monthly salary which is about K200 million every year.
This means for a period of four years, each Fifa Council member pockets close to K1 billion.
Apart from hefty salary, Council members are also entitled to five star hotels, lavish dinners and cash allowances. In addition, Council members’ wives or girlfriends also get half the allowances of their spouses.
Earlier on the day, South African business mogul Patrice Motsepe was endorsed Caf president, replacing Ahmad Ahmad, who was barred from contesting after he was found guilty of not recording various transactions during his term of office.
The assembly also agreed to increase vice presidents for Caf to five from three. This means Pinnick became a member of Caf executives alongside Senegalese FA boss Austin Senghor and Mauritania FA leader Ahmed Yahya, Souleiman Waberi from Algeria FA and Fouzi Lekjaa from Morocco.
Sports analyst, George Kaudza-Masina, said Malawi football has lost.
“We expected it and I am not surprised that he has lost. It was tough because people vote as a bloc,” Kaudza-Masina said.
Nyamilandu rose to the position of Fifa Council member when he defeated South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan in 2018.