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Drogba still favoured in Ivoirien FA Election despite no vote by ex-players

By Gowon Akpodonor
09 May 2020   |   3:09 am
Two-time African Player of the Year, Didier Drogba is still considered as the favoured candidate to win the Cote d’Ivoire FA election slated for June despite his failure to secure a vote from members

Two-time African Player of the Year, Didier Drogba is still considered as the favoured candidate to win the Cote d’Ivoire FA election slated for June despite his failure to secure a vote from members of the Association of former Ivoirian footballers two weeks ago.

Of the 14 members in the Association, 11 voted for Drogba’s rival, Sory Diabate, while three persons abstained. The result of the ex-footballers election sparked a hot debate across the globe, with many soccer fans describing it as ‘deliberate wickedness’ on their part to truncate Drogba’s political ambition.

Reacting to The Guardian story on Monday titled: Didier Drogba…A fall patriotism, compassion could not halt, a sports journalist, Guisse Kouadio Charles, who follows the FA election in Cote d’Ivoire said: “Cote d’Ivoire FA election is coming up in June. We have three aspirants and everyone is campaigning for now. The election is not just about the association of Ivoirian old players. They are supporting Mr Sory Diabate and their reason is that Drogba did not make his intentions of contesting for the election known to them. They also said that Drogba did not attend their meetings. That is why they are not going to support him for the coming election.

“But we still have a few individuals in the association of Ivoirian old players that are backing Drogba. The Ivoirian old footballers association has only five slots during the election. In all, a total of 81 people will vote during the June election. For now, Drogba is still having the presidential backing because the wife of the president received him (Drogba) a few weeks ago.

“His greatest rival, Mr Sory Diabate is the present vice president of Ivoirian FA and president of LPF (Ligue professional de football). He has been in Ivoirian FA for about 16 years now.

“Out of 14 clubs in L1, each of them has three votes, while clubs in D2 have two votes each. For now, ASEC Mimosas has taken Drogba as their candidate, and so many others.”

Drogba has contributed so much to his country, on and off the field of football. Apart from giving scholarship to many Ivoirian youths to attain quality education, the former Chelsea striker built school and hospitals across five cities to take care of the health of young people and women.

Drogba became the face and symbol of a new, post-civil war Cote d’Ivoire following the peace role he played far back 2005, when the entire country was engulfed in crisis. He scored a record 65 goals in 104 caps for the Elephants before retiring from international football in 2014.

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