Nyantakyi faces FIFA Council election today, two seats available

Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi is facing a key career election today in Egypt as he is a candidate for the two FIFA Council seats available for Africa.

African football associations will elect two additional members to the FIFA Council when CAF holds an extraordinary general meeting on Thursday.

The 54 member nations meeting in Cairo the headquarters of Africa's governing body to votes two more people to serve on the powerful FIFA Council.

Five candidates are standing for election to the new-look FIFA Council where Africa has been given two additional seats in FIFA's cabinet, significantly expanded as part of reforms introduced by new president Gianni Infantino.

CAF's vice president Almamy Kabele Camara of Guinea has been nominated along with two other members of CAF's executive committee - the Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi and his counterpart from Madagascar, Ahmad, who uses just a single name.

The two other candidates are the presidents of the football associations in Niger and Senegal - Hamidou Djibrilla and Augustin Senghor. There have been two withdrawals in the last week.

The 36-member FIFA Council will hold its first meeting in Zurich on October 13-14 as its replaces the tarnished 24-member executive committee and takes responsibility for setting the overall strategic direction of world football's governing body.

Such an expansive field of candidates for just two seats is a departure from previous contests to decide Africa's representation on the all-powerful FIFA executive, which have previously been painstakingly choreographed by long-standing president Issa Hayatou.

But this time, with his own future uncertain after almost three decades at the helm of African football, he looks to have allowed his lieutenants to scrap among each other for the posts.

The newly elected members will only sit on the council until March next year when another round of elections will be held at the 2017 CAF Congress in Addis Ababa on March 17.