Ismail Bhamjee

From starting his career as a football referee in Botswana Ismail Bhamjee rose through the ranks to serve as President of both the Botswana Football Association (BFA) and the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), in addition to becoming an executive member of FIFA. Bhamjee was also a founding member of the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC), later becoming the organisation’s President.

Bhamjee helped to establish the BNOC, which gained recognition by the IOC in 1980, the same year that Botswana made its début at the Olympics, sending a delegation to the Moskva Games. After working as the secretary general of the BNOC Bhamjee served as the organisation’s President from 1988 to 2000. During this time he also served as the President of the BFA from 1991 to 1995, followed by leading COSAFA from 1997 to 2000. He was awarded with the Olympic Order in Silver in 2003. Three years later, however, Bhamjee was implicated in a ticket scandal at the 2006 FIFA World Cup with him losing all his positions in FIFA with him retiring from football shortly after. He died in March 2021 at the age of 77 after contracting the coronavirus.