Mamatou Toure re-elected president of Mali FA from prison cell
Mamatou Touré has been re-elected president of Mali football federation on a four-year term from a prison cell.
He won a landslide victory at an extraordinary general assembly of the federation (Femafoot) by 61 votes to one, with one abstention.
Mamatou Toure, widely known as Bavieux, is currently in jail in the Malian capital Bamako as he awaits trial after being accused of embezzling funds during his time as a financial and administrative director in Mali’s National Assembly.
The 66-year-old, who has led Femafoot since 2019, is a member of both the Fifa Council, the board of football’s world governing body, and the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
He was also the sole candidate for the elections after being the only one of four men to pass an eligibility test, which he managed to do prior to being indicted on 9 August by the Malian state for “attacking public property as well as forgery and use of forgery and complicity”.
Along with four others, Toure is accused – in charges that all deny – of embezzling a reported US$28 million from the state purse.
Toure is a former tax inspector with a master’s degree in auditing. The charges against him cover a period between 2013 and 2019, when the five representatives of the then ruling RPM (‘Rassemblement pour le Mali’) party were in power, and which largely pre-date Toure’s election as Femafoot president in August 2019.
