Djibouti football president and Infantino ally removed from office

A group of club presidents voted on Monday to oust the president of the Djibouti football federation (FDF) Souleiman Hassan Waberi and his executive committee in an extraordinary general assembly.

All the 39 delegates at the meeting voted unanimously to remove Waberi and his executive committee, and an interim committee was established to oversee the federation.

The federation has rejected the meeting as illegitimate

Waberi is a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and a close ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

The meeting was held at the FDF headquarters in Djibouti and was attended by two observers from the state secretariat for sports. Legal officials overseeing the proceedings said the required two-thirds quorum was met.

Waberi and his team dispute the legitimacy of the meeting. In a statement, the federation said the meeting had no statutory basis and that any decisions taken were “null and void”.

A powerful figure in African football

The dispute involves a football official with an unusually prominent regional and international profile. Waberi has served as president of the Djibouti Football Federation since 2012 and has held senior positions within CECAFA, the regional football body for Central and East Africa.

In 2025, Waberi was elected to the FIFA Executive Committee in Cairo, becoming the first representative from East Africa to secure a seat on FIFA’s highest decision-making body.

He is also a member of the CAF Executive Committee, giving the dispute implications well beyond Djibouti’s domestic football administration.

Djibouti, meanwhile, remains one of the lowest-ranked national teams in the FIFA men’s rankings, sitting at 195th in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking.

The FDF has warned that the dispute could have international consequences. It cited FIFA statutes concerning the independent management of member associations, arguing that the involvement of state security forces in removing elected football officials could constitute outside interference.

The FDF called for the withdrawal of police from its headquarters and the restoration of what it described as its legitimate leadership, while urging football stakeholders to remain calm.