The apex body of world football questions the management of the president of the African Football Confederation (CAF), who is suspended for five years. The one whose four-year mandate at the head of this institution expires in five months will have to pay a fine of 185,000 euros sees his future darken, because despite the existence of remedies, this sanction seriously jeopardizes his re-election during the renewal of the office scheduled for next March.
Ahmad Ahmad has just been struck with a real sledgehammer. The Ethics Commission of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), on 23 November 2020, issued a decision suspending for five years the current president of the African Football Confederation (CAF). A sanction accompanied by a fine of 185,000 euros.
According to FIFA, Ahmad Ahmad is “guilty of violating Articles 15 (Duty of loyalty), 20 (Acceptance and distribution of gifts or other benefits) and 25 (Abuse of power) of the 2020 edition of the Code of Ethics of Fifa, as well as art. 28 (Misappropriation of funds) of its 2018 edition ”. In addition, in its decision, “which followed a long hearing, the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Commission established, on the basis of information gathered by the investigating chamber, that Mr. Ahmad had failed to comply with his duty of loyalty, granted gifts and other advantages, managed funds inappropriately and abused his function as president of CAF ”.
While it is true that the respondent can appeal this decision, everything suggests that the reasons linked to his conviction give him little chance of getting out of it, especially since “the investigation into the behavior of Mr. Ahmad as President of CAF between 2017 and 2019 focused on various issues related to the governance of CAF, including the organization and funding of a pilgrimage to Mecca (Umrah), his connections with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel and other activities, ”said the press release from Fifa.
Already entangled in governance problems, Ahmad Ahmad was sidelined in 2019, and for six months, it was the secretary general of FIFA, Senegalese Fatma Samoura, who had managed CAF with, among others, for mission, to speed up the reform process. Accused of paying bribes and personal use of CAF funds, he had a tumultuous tenure.
Suddenly, his re-election at the head of CAF whose election will take place on March 12, 2021 in Morocco is seriously compromised, because, not only is it difficult to know whether in the event of an appeal the decision reversing or confirming the current sentence will already be made public, but the ban that came into effect “today is not suspensive”. This situation could cause a real turning point for the choice of the next president of CAF where apart from the outgoing president we have registered four candidatures, in this case, the Ivorian Jacques Anouma, the Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, the Senegalese Augustin Senghor. , and the South African Patrice Motsepe.
Former Secretary of State for Sport in his country, the Malagasy had, against all odds, defeated Cameroonian Issa Hayatou in 2017, who had been head of CAF for thirty years.