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The president of the African Football Confederation (Caf), Ahmad Ahmad, has been sanctioned by the governing body of world football, FIFA, for five years for financial misconduct.
FIFA said in a statement that the investigation covered Ahmad’s conduct in his role as Caf president during the period from 2017 to 2019.
It was related to various governance issues related to Caf, including organizing and financing a pilgrimage from Umrah to Mecca, Ahmad’s involvement in the continental body’s dealings with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel, and other activities.
“In its decision, after a wide hearing, the sentencing chamber ruled that, based on the information gathered by the investigative chamber, Mr. Ahmad had breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds, and he abused his position as president of CAF. “In accordance with the FIFA Code of Ethics,” the statement said.
“Consequently, the court determined that Mr. Ahmad had violated articles 15, 20 and 25 of the current edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as article 28 of the 2018 edition, and sanctioned him with a ban of all football related activities (administrative, sports or any other) both nationally and internationally for five years.
“In addition, a fine of 200,000 [Swiss francs] has been imposed on Mr. Ahmad.
“The terms of the decision were notified to Mr. Ahmad today, the date the ban takes effect.
“In accordance with article 78, paragraph 2, of the FIFA Code of Ethics, the full, reasoned decision will be notified to Mr. Ahmad within the next 60 days, after which it will be published on legal.fifa.com.”
Ahmad was seeking re-election as Caf president and would be challenged by Patrice Motsepe from South Africa, Jacques Anouma from the Ivory Coast Football Federation, Senegal FA president Augustin Senghor and the head of the Mauritanian federation, Ahmed Yahya.
Madagascar’s presidency has been marked by a litany of controversies and FIFA effectively took over the leadership of the African body last year after numerous corruption allegations dogged Caf and Ahmad in particular.
Things came to a head when FIFA sent its general secretary Fatma Samoura to Egypt to run the government over the besieged body.
Samoura’s arrival was preceded by Ahmad’s arrest in Paris in June 2019 and he had to answer questions related to a French police corruption investigation.
The March 12 elections will be held in Morocco next year.
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