Op-ed by Adjib Koulamallah, magistrate, former president of Gazelle FC and Deputy Secretary General of the Chadian Football Federation.
“Mr. President,
I speak at the very moment when my entire continent remains silent. And I want to begin by explaining why it is silent.
Africa is not silent out of ignorance. Our football federation leaders see what the whole world sees.
Nor is Africa silent out of indifference: nowhere is football more loved, more passionately lived, or more essential than here. Africa is silent because its silence has been budgeted for. Every federation waits for its development grant, its FIFA Forward project, its synthetic pitch, its new headquarters. There is no need to buy anyone outright; it is enough to create dependency, and dependency does the rest. Those who criticize know what they risk delaying; those who applaud know what they hope to accelerate. A quarter of FIFA’s electorate thus votes as one, election cycle after election cycle, and we are expected to believe this is unity. It is not unity. It is a mortgage on our dignity, repayable in silence.
As for me, I owe nothing and expect nothing. I served my federation for eight years, chaired a football club for seventeen, and I am a magistrate by profession: judging the powerful by their actions is my job. So I will say openly, under my own name, what is whispered in every official football stand across Africa.
And I begin by reminding you where you came from. In February 2016, you arrived amid the ruins of the Blatter system, only months after U.S. authorities arrested senior football officials at dawn in Zurich’s luxury hotels. You were not a candidate despite those scandals—you were a candidate because of them. You promised a new FIFA: transparent, ethical, and reconciled with integrity. You swore the institution would never again become what it had been.
Ten years later, what do we see? Political awards invented to suit particular individuals, disciplinary sanctions erased by telephone calls, tournaments awarded without competition, an Ethics Committee reduced to silence, and once again the U.S. federal justice system knocking at football’s door—right in the middle of your World Cup. You are no better than what you claimed to replace. You have simply become better at choosing your friends.
I denounce what has just happened before our eyes during your World Cup. On July 1st, an American player was sent off in the Round of 16. The rule has always been the same for everyone: red card, suspension. The President of the United States, whom you openly call your friend, telephones you. Then, on Sunday, your Disciplinary Committee erases the suspension on the eve of the next match.
Belgium’s head coach mocked the decision: “I didn’t know that July 5th was April Fool’s Day at FIFA.”
Mr. President, if a red card can disappear after a telephone call from Washington, what weight will any future decision carry when it runs against the interests of the powerful? Which African federation will ever again dare challenge a disqualification, a disciplinary sanction, or a refereeing decision?
I also denounce the so-called “Peace Prize” that you created from nothing and awarded on December 5th to that same Head of State—without published criteria, without an independent jury, without consulting your own FIFA Council—while publicly promising him your support.
A human rights organization referred the matter to your Ethics Committee, alleging a breach of FIFA’s duty of political neutrality. The Norwegian Football Federation supported the complaint. Fifty Members of the European Parliament demanded an investigation. Seven months later, your Ethics Committee has not uttered a single word. In the past, it acted much more swiftly in other cases. Everyone may draw their own conclusions.
I denounce opacity as a method of governance: the Doha apartment, the private flights, the unanswered questions, and a World Cup transformed into a revenue-generating machine—dynamic ticket pricing pushing ticket costs into the thousands of dollars while supporters are left to fend for themselves, all as FIFA pursues the most profitable commercial cycle in its history.
I denounce the awarding of the 2034 FIFA World Cup without competition, by acclamation, through a process locked down within a matter of weeks.
Only one football federation in the world had the courage to challenge that process. It was not African.
I denounce the climate your governance has created, a climate that has now borne its bitterest fruit.
This week, American and Argentine media revealed that the FBI and U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating financial operations of the Argentine Football Association in the United States involving hundreds of millions of dollars transferred through American banks, with part of those funds lacking a clearly justified destination.
I prejudge nothing. The presumption of innocence applies to everyone, and this investigation does not target you personally. But consider the symbolism. Ten years after U.S. justice dismantled the Blatter system, it has returned in the middle of your World Cup, this time investigating one of your most openly allied federations.
And this revelation came only one day after Egypt’s elimination—a heroic African team knocked out amid major controversy, whose federation has filed an official complaint regarding the refereeing. I am not saying that the match was stolen. I am saying something worse.
Your governance has destroyed the presumption of neutrality to such an extent that an entire continent watched that elimination convinced that suspicion was justified. When the public no longer believes the referee, everything has already been lost. And that, Mr. President, is your legacy.
And as I write these lines, your Referees Committee added provocation to suspicion. For Thursday evening’s France–Morocco quarter-final, it appointed an entirely Argentine refereeing team: the referee, both assistant referees, the fourth official, the reserve official, and even the VAR team. A first in this World Cup. All while Argentina remains in the tournament.
Nothing in your regulations formally prohibits such an appointment.I know that. But everything about the circumstances argued against it. An Argentine federation that has been under U.S. federal investigation for forty-eight hours. A Franco-Argentine rivalry still inflamed since the 2022 World Cup Final. And an African team’s fate resting under that whistle.
I do not question Mr. Tello’s personal integrity. He asked for none of this. I question your judgment.
Every magistrate knows the golden rule of justice: it is not enough that justice be done. It must also be seen to be done. You did the exact opposite. At the very moment when the entire world doubts, you made the appointment most likely to deepen that doubt.
One might almost think suspicion no longer troubles you. Or perhaps it serves you.
Finally, I denounce what you have made of us. Our CAF governed like a prefecture of Zurich. Our Africa Cup of Nations—our defining football competition since 1957— treated as an inconvenience in the calendar of European clubs, to the point where even European coaches themselves had to demand that Africa be respected.
And my own country, Chad, left for years in institutional limbo: a contested normalisation process, unresolved disputes, and a vacuum your procedures allowed to rot until the State itself had to intervene. And suddenly, your sacred principle of “non-interference” found nothing to object to. Non-interference applied with double standards. Relentless toward the weak. Blind toward the strong.
People will answer me: “but what about the stadiums, the academies, the subsidies?” My answer is simple. This development is not a gift. It is our due. It is Africa’s rightful share of a wealth created in large part by African players, African talent, and African supporters. A right must not be repaid with servility.
The day we accept that every subsidy is worth a vote and every project is worth our silence, we will no longer have football federations. We will have subsidiaries. So I say this to my brothers and sisters in Africa’s football federations: our silence does not even protect our interests. It merely guarantees that nothing will ever change in our favour.
I say this to CAF: you are not a branch office. Stop voting like one.
I say this to the players and supporters of this continent: this game belongs to you—not to the one who distributes the envelopes.
And I say this to you, Mr. President: on July 19th, you intend to present the World Cup trophy standing beside your friend, as though this tournament belonged to both of you.
Know this: at least one African voice will have refused to join the orchestrated applause. Only what is for sale can be bought. My voice is not.
N’Djamena, July 2026.”
Josimar regularly opens its columns to independent guest contributors who wish to comment on the most pressing issues in world football. These columns solely reflect the opinion of their authors. Their publication does not constitute an endorsement on Josimar’s behalf, but a way to encourage and promote debate within the football community.
