Below is the full speech presented by the President of Confederation of African Football (CAF), Ahmad Ahmad at the 1st African Symposium held between 18th and 20th July 2017 in Morocco.
Ministers and Members of Governments,
The Secretary General of FIFA,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the FIFA Council,
Ladies and gentlemen of the CAF Executive Committee,
Presidents of National Associations,
Ladies and gentlemen of the grand African football family,
Honourable guests,
My fellow colleagues and friends,
EL HAMDOULILAH,
God has given me faith and reasons to be hopeful.
God has given me faith and the strength to witness these historic moments with you
I am a happy man today. A contented manager. An overwhelmed President.
Yes! Happy, contented and overwhelmed by all I have seen, heard and retained.
Our great football family has done an unbelievable demonstration of its intellectual, technical and strategic capabilities.
The voices I heard here, coming from all the zones and regions of our continent, have definitely assured me of the power we possess to bring about profound change.
I am a happy man because I have been around with you these two supercharged days, discussing with you.
You all have the magnificent spirit to strive for excellence, transformation and to pursue ambitious goals.
As a manager, I am satisfied at the correctness of your analysis, moral rectitude, intentions and by the fact that you uphold the major or superior interests of the Confederation Africaine de Football.
As President, I am overwhelmed that at the end of four months of my mandate, your unfailing support, your commitment firmly on my side reassures and gives me the strength to forge ahead into this mandate with an even greater motivation, even more englobing.
My dear friends,
The symposium, which I had longed for with all my heart, as I told you, is a brilliant success, thanks to you.
It marks a break-off point with the past, and installs a new governance with new firm orientations.
It institutes a new work philosophy, sets up a strategy birthed from your uncountable ideas.
The symposium will forever be seen as a founding act of a new CAF.
It now calls on us to embrace work, rigour, discipline, and respect for the rules outlined here. I share this great responsibility with you.
It is together within our great African football family that we shall carry out the new actions and shall confront all sorts of difficulties and blockages that shall arise before us.
For, let us be realistic: we will meet with difficulties, we will come across some really delicate issues, and we would have to face very serious pitfalls.
But I am confident in your determination to succeed with this programme, for you conceived it with such unbelievable determination, such unbelievable desire for change.
I therefore trust in your immense ability to make of CAF a rigourous organisation, perfectly transformed, totally serene in its new commitments.
Thank you to you all for these results that are beyond my expectations.
Thank you to this magnificent host country and to His Majesty King Mohamed VI of Morocco, who chaired our meeting.
May heartfelt gratitude be particularly extended to everyone through you.
Thank you to the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and its President, my brother and friend, Fouzi Lekjaa who went above and beyond to provide for us ideal conditions for work and reflection.
I urge you to applaud for him and his team for the feat, their availability and their touching generosity.
Thank you to FIFA, its President - Gianni Infantino, who has spent some very important moments with us and who effectively supports us.
Thank you to Madame Fatma Samoura, my sister and FIFA Secretary General, who stayed here with us during the entire time of this our historic meeting.
Thank you to representatives of governments and the diplomatic corps.
Thank you to the various collaborators from the UEFA and other confederations and international organisations.
Lastly my heartfelt thanks go to all of you Presidents of national federations, Secretaries General, national coaches, stars and legends, referees, medical doctors, technicians, men and women of the press and all those who spontaneously joined us in these exceptional debates and discussions, and of course to my TEAM from CAF.
My dear colleagues, my dear friends
The way forward is still long and strewn with pitfalls. We would have to follow all the blue prints that are opening before us.
We would have to analyse and evaluate all the new actions.
We would need strength, vitality and deep convictions.
Once more I honestly tell you, sincerely:
What I have seen here is beyond what I expected.
Everything is new, and motivating to us to immediately get to work.
Tomorrow, with my colleagues of the CAF Executive Committee, we shall review your proposals.
We shall do our job with seriousness and responsibility.
Two days from now will be the great rendezvous of our Congress for the statutory and regulatory culmination of all that we have retained from this historic Symposium.
I wish you a happy return to your families and a pleasant end of stay among us in Morocco.
LONG LIVE THE RABAT RENDEZVOUS!
LONG LIVE FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA!
LONG LIVE THE CONFEDERATION OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL!
