[4] Issa Hayatou was born in Garoua, in what was then French Cameroon, on 9 August 1946, the son of a local Sultan, and became a middle distance runner and physical education teacher.

[7] President of CAF for almost three decades, Hayatou oversaw particularly successful FIFA World Cup appearances by Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and pushed for African places in the finals to increase from two to five, with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa seeing the hosts garner an automatic sixth spot for an African team.

There has also been an expansion outside men's football, with the CAF overseeing youth, women's, futsal, and beach soccer competitions.

[10] A September 1997 initiative negotiated by Hayatou with UEFA saw the payment of fees to African governing bodies and clubs for African-born players working in Europe.

The 1999 Goal Project created with FIFA gives 46 African FAs financial support worth one million dollars over four years.

The Togolese team was attacked on 8 January 2010 while travelling to Angola by bus prior to the start of the Cup, resulting in two deaths in the Togo delegation.

[15] In November 2010 Andrew Jennings, the presenter of FIFA's Dirty Secrets, an edition of BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama alleged that Hayatou had taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of contracts for the sale of television rights to the football World Cup.

[3] In May 2011, The Sunday Times published claims from a whistle-blower that Hayatou had, along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, accepted $1.5 million in bribes from Qatar to secure his support for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

[29] On 3 November 2007, Hayatou was awarded an honorary degree from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria.