Cairo (AFP)

Emergency decision or in a hurry? Thursday's appointment of Fifa Fatma Samoura as general delegate for Africa has created tension between the African Confederation (CAF), which defends its right to be helped, and UEFA, which disputes this choice. .

"I can not approve this proposal at the moment," UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a letter that AFP has obtained.

His response sent a chill a few hours after the words of his CAF counterpart Ahmad Ahmad who welcomed the intervention of FIFA to postpone the criticized instance from all sides for several months: "There It's no better than Fifa to see what's going on inside CAF. "

Ms. Samoura was appointed to oversee the operation of CAF for six months, starting August 1st. Under his tutelage, an audit must be conducted to redress an organization weakened by the suspicions of corruption around its president, and a shocked organization of the CAN which begins Friday, among others.

Problem, the UEFA president, member of the Council of Fifa, the government of world football, does not agree with his designation, on the substance as the form.

"It is inconceivable to send a letter in the middle of the night (received at 1:30 am this morning) and wait for my answer before 10:30 am I still want to help, but the Fifa Council Office could not be reduced to a simple registration chamber, "he wrote.

- "She is African, she knows how to round" -

"Never in the history of our institutions has the Secretary-General of Fifa been seconded to take control of a confederation, even with the consent of the latter." You must understand that this is not the type of decision to be made. lightly, "he continued.

The Slovenian leader has expressed doubts about the legality of the process at the level of the statutes and about a possible conflict of interest, especially since Fatma Samoura will keep her cap as general secretary of Fifa while she will help the CAF.

His statements provoked turmoil in Cairo, where the logic of a process bringing together CAF and Fifa is defended.

"Gianni Infantino (President of Fifa) was not elected to develop one continent at the expense of another.When CAF asks him, it is hard to see how FIFA can not play its role. a logic of accompaniment ", explains to AFP Constant Omari, vice-president of the CAF.

"We can not act like that when there is a good action, we are sovereign of our actions", he continued, defending the choice of the Senegalese.

"It would have been shocking if it had been a European or a South American, to apply the reforms, you need to know the context, it is African, it knows how to round the corners, to promote discussion."

Mr Ceferin's reaction, "it's a shame, we have a goal to reduce the gap with other continents in the next 5 to 10 years," he concluded.

? 2019 AFP