Mamoutou Touré, re-elected president of the Malian Football Federation (FEMAFOOT), recently announced that he was withdrawing from the race for a new mandate within the FIFA Council and the Confederation of African Football (CAF). This decision comes while he has been placed in pre-trial detention since August 2023.
In a letter addressed to these authorities, Touré explained that his detention since August 9, coupled with health problems, motivated his withdrawal. Touré is accused of embezzlement of public funds, for an amount of around 17 billion CFA francs, as well as forgery and use of forgery, facts dating back to his time in the National Assembly between 2013 and 2019. Since his arrest, he has not was not granted provisional release, which seriously restricted his ability to fulfill his national and international roles.
On August 29, Touré was re-elected as head of FEMAFOOT for a new four-year term, although he remains in detention. This election, marked by an absence of significant competitors and suspicions surrounding the transparency of the process, sparked lively discussions in Mali and beyond.
In his letter of renunciation sent to international football authorities, he specifies: “These 17 months of detention, without the possibility of benefiting from provisional release, prevented me from fully investing in my duties and in preparing for the renewal of my my mandate within the FIFA Council,” writes Touré in his correspondence published by our colleagues at Sud Quotidien.
-Through his missive, Touré also described the lack of support from the Malian authorities, particularly the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and expressed his intention to maintain the serenity of the organizations he represents. Although he has expressed his desire to continue contributing to the development of football in other forms, the date of his trial remains unknown, placing Touré at the heart of a case revealing the ethical and governance challenges shaking African football .
This decision, relayed by Sud Quotidien, could be seen as a strategy to ease tensions, although it raises uncertainties about the future of Malian football internationally.
