Former FIFA employee Véron Mosengo-Omba has been named Confederation of African Football (CAF) general secretary, following the election of Patrice Motsepe as the organisation’s new President.
Mosengo-Omba, an ally of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, had been working for the global governing body as its chief member associations officer.
The governing body said Mosengo-Omba initially joined FIFA in 2016 and helped to support member associations to implement the FIFA Forward development programme.
FIFA credited Mosengo-Omba with managing relationships with all FIFA member associations and continental confederations in his role.
This included supporting the 54 African member associations in their FIFA Forward projects, in the development of youth and women’s football throughout the continent, as well as the recent implementation of the FIFA COVID-19 Relief Plan.
“On behalf of all of FIFA, we would like to thank Véron Mosengo-Omba for his excellent work and wish him the very best of luck in his next challenge as CAF General Secretary,” a joint statement from Infantino and FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura read.
“FIFA also looks forward to working with him on future projects in helping to project African football to the summit of world football.”
According to the BBC, Mosengo-Omba read law together with Infantino at university and was one of two FIFA employees seen talking to the CAF Presidential candidates prior to the election.
Ivorian Jacques Anouma, Senegal’s Augustin Senghor and Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya formed part of the meeting.
The trio agreed to withdraw from the election process in favour of other leadership roles.
Senghor and Yahya named first and second vice-president respectively.
