CAF President, Ahmad Ahmad Hit With 5 Years Ban By FIFA

World football governing body, FIFA, has banned the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Ahmad Ahmad, from all football-related activities for five years. In an official statement on its website on Monday, November 23, FIFA’s Independent Ethics Committee also disclosed that the African football chief will also pay a fine of 200,000 Swiss Franc. 

Ahmad according to FIFA was found guilty of abusing his offices as CAF President and one of FIFA Vice Presidents, funds misappropriation, and offering gifts and other benefits while in office.

It will be recalled that the troubled football administrator had declared his intention to run for a second term as CAF President last month, but was forced to handover duties as president temporarily to his first vice-president Constant Omari after testing positive for COVID-19.

See the full FIFA statement below:

The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Ahmad Ahmad, the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and a FIFA Vice-President, guilty of having breached art. 15 (Duty of loyalty), art. 20 (Offering and accepting gifts or other benefits) and art. 25 (Abuse of position) of the 2020 edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as art. 28 (Misappropriation of funds) of the 2018 edition.

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.

In its decision, following an extensive hearing, the adjudicatory chamber ruled that, based on information gathered by the investigatory chamber, Mr Ahmad had breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President, pursuant to the FIFA Code of Ethics.

Consequently, the adjudicatory chamber found that Mr Ahmad had breached arts 15, 20 and 25 of the current edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, as well as art. 28 of the 2018 edition, and sanctioned him with a ban from all football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level for five years. In addition, a fine in the amount of CHF 200,000 has been imposed on Mr Ahmad.

The terms of the decision were notified to Mr Ahmad today, the date on which the ban comes into force. In accordance with art. 78 par. 2 of the FIFA Code of Ethics, the full, motivated decision will be notified to Mr Ahmad in the next 60 days, after which it will be published on legal.fifa.com.

FIFA

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FIFA

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