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The 35th General Assembly of African soccer's governing body, CAF, enters the second day in Marrakech, Morocco, on Sunday, with the election of the confederation's officials, including the president.
Incumbent CAF President, Issa Hayatou, who was first elected to the post also in Morocco 25 years ago, is sure to retain the presidency, because he is the only candidate.
The Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) which is based in Switzerland, paved the way for Hayatou to be returned unopposed after ruling last week that his possible opponent, Jacques Anouma of Cote d'Ivoire, was not eligible to contest.
CAS ruled on Tuesday that the CAF Executive Committee had jurisdiction to refuse Anouma's candidature.
It added that CAF Statutes adopted in September 2012 were applicable in assessing the validity of the candidates in the presidential election.
The ruling also said that Anouma did not meet these criteria because he had never been a member of the CAF Executive Committee.
Last year, CAF confirmed that the 66-year old Hayatou will be unchallenged for re-election.
This followed a controversial amendment that was made to the confederation's statutes last September, when member nations voted to introduce a measure that will permit only executive committee officials to run for the organisation's presidency.
Hayatou, who has said this will be his last contest for the CAF presidency, is the fifth CAF president and by far the longest serving.
His predecessors are Ethiopian Ydnekatchew Tessema, who served 15 years, Egyptian Abdel Aziz Moustafa (10 years), Sudanese Abdel Halim Mohammad (5 years) and Egyptian Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem (1 year).
Apart from the election into the CAF presidency, there will be elections for four executive committee positions, while Algerian Mohamed Raouraoua and Sudanese Magdi Sham El Din have been returned unopposed.
The CAF general assembly had opened on Saturday with a colourful ceremony depicting the diversity of the African continent.
Declaring the congress open, Hayatou said Morocco held special memories because the north African country hosted the congress at which he was elected president for the very first time.
He said the country had been a great, willing and constant supporter of African football for a long time.
Among those who attended the opening were the presidents of the 54 national associations and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Blatter hailed Hayatou’s leadership of African football over the last quarter of a century, saying African football has become world famous and made commendable strides during this period.
He also commended Morocco for the continued development of its football infrastructure and recent launching of professional league.
The FIFA President added: “As a result, Morocco will become the first African nation to host FIFA World Club Cup in December this year and that is in recognition of the enormous work Morocco, through the guidance and leadership of King Mohamed VI, has undertaken.”
President Goodluck Jonathan has promised more support for the development of the Nigeria Police Games, to enable it to discover more talents for international competitions.
Jonathan made the promise in Port Harcourt during the closing ceremony of the 10th Biennial Police Games.
The president said that the support was necessary to promote sportsmen and women in the police force and to also enhance the nation's sports development.
Represented by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the president said that the importance of Nigeria Police to securing the nation could not be over-emphasised.
''The history of Nigeria will not be complete without the roles the police played to the development of the country,'' Jonathan said.
He said that Nigeria recorded a remarkable achievement from the police force, commending the legends that had been discovered through police games.
''To all the participants in the 10th biennial games in Port Harcourt, I urge you to consider your participation in the games as an honour to Nigeria,'' he said.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, said that the games had been a breeding ground for discovering of stars in the country.
''The best of Nigeria Police has been displayed in the games; I urge those that participated not to rest but to utilise their talents.
''The time demands that you must work hard for you to become a legend,'' Abubakar said.
The Rivers Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, congratulated the organisers of the games, and expressed optimism that the aim of the games had been achieved.
''We have seen unity among the police and the entire Nigerians; I hope they have learnt much about Rivers state,'' Amaechi said.
Represented by his Deputy, Mr Tele Ikuru, the governor said that unity, which was one of the objectives of the games, must have been achieved through interactions among the participants.
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The Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi on Friday said the National Sports Festival (NSF), as presently run, could no longer serve the purpose of talent discovery for athletes to represent the country at the Olympic Games.
This, he noted, was because the average of talents from festivals ranges from 24 to 30 years.
The minister made the observation during Media Round Table with Lagos Chapter of the Sports Writers’ Association of Nigeria (SWAN) at its secretariat at the National Stadium, Lagos.
Abdullahi said it was only through talent hunt at the level of secondary schools that could guarantee the young talents that could be prepared for the Elite level Games.
He noted that the age of a swimmer who broke a world Record from China was 15. ``It is only at that age that we can harvest talents that can be presented at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.
``Schools have to be the hub for exposing children to play sports as early as possible.
``And that is why we said the National Sports Festival can no longer serve the possible of Nigeria as a means for discovering talents.
``The National Sports Festival could be the Nigeria’s equivalent of the Olympics; it should be the highest sporting event for Nigerians but if we want to continue to discover talents, we have to go back to children.''
The minister stressed that as part of the NSC role in developing school sports, it decided to initiate the National U-17 Youth Games.
``One of the immediate actions we took coming out of the London Olympics was the dissolution of the board of the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee and the reconstitution of that board.
``And the reason we did that was also to achieve the kind of synergy you talked about now within the board of the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee.
``You have the school sports federation strongly represented, you have YSFON strongly represented, you have federal ministry of education strongly represented then you have the National Sports Commission strongly represented as well as one or two individuals we brought in from the private sector.
``And the high point of what they are planning is the National U-17 Youth Games, which we are confident will happen by the middle of this year.
``The National U-17 Games is an acknowledgement that the Olympic Champion is in the child and not the woman or man.’’