(ATR) Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Ahmad Ahmad banned by FIFA for five years for a number of ethics violations.
Ahmad, 60, who is also a FIFA vice-president, was found by the world governing body’s ethics committee to have breached codes relating to duty of loyalty, offering and accepting gifts, abuse of position and misappropriation of funds.
In addition to the five year ban, Ahmad was also fined CHF 200,000 ($218,850).
"The investigation into Mr Ahmad’s conduct in his position as CAF President during the period from 2017 to 2019 concerned various CAF-related governance issues, including the organisation and financing of an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca, his involvement in CAF’s dealings with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel and other activities," FIFA said in a statement.
FIFA initially learned of the litany of misdeeds from a report filed in spring of 2019 by the then secretary general of CAF Amr Fahmy, who said that Ahmad had also ordered him to pay bribes to African FA presidents. Ahmad was also accused of harassing four female members of the CAF staff.
Ahmad denied any wrongdoing and Fahmy was fired.
The ban likely puts an end to Ahmad’s plans for a second term as CAF president. The Madagascar native is running for re-election in voting that was scheduled for the CAF Congress in Rabat, Morocco on March 12.
He can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but must wait up to 60 days for FIFA to publish the full grounds for the decision before he may take any legal action. That would leave a short window for CAS to hear the case and rule on it before the March elections.
The other candidates running for the CAF presidency are Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Patrice Motsepe (South Africa), Augustin Senghor (Senegal) and Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania).
CAF said in a statement on Monday that first vice-president Constant Omari would be staying on as interim president due to Ahmad’s ban.
Omari had temporarily taken over earlier this month as Ahmad recovered after testing positive for Covid-19.
Written by Gerard Farek
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