CAF Elections: Arbitration court clears way for Motsepe presidency

The Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] on Monday upheld the ban on CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad ostensibly smoothening the way for South African businessman, Patrice Motsepe, to emerge as the president of CAF when elections take place on Friday in Morocco.

In a statement released on Monday night, CAS said, “the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decision in the appeal filed by Mr Ahmad Ahmad against the decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee issued on 19 November 2020 (grounds served on 21 January 2021) (the Challenged Decision).

“The CAS Panel has partially upheld the appeal and has reduced the length of the suspension

imposed on Mr Ahmad to two years, starting today, less the period of suspension already served between 19 November 2020 and 29 January 2021, and has also reduced the fine, fixed now at CHF 50,000.”

Ruling

This ruling effectively ruled out Ahmad’s comeback bid and strengthens Motsepe’s quest.

This comes after the three other leading candidates for the presidency-Emmanuel Senghor, Jacques Anouma, and Ahmed Yahya reportedly withdrew from the race last Friday.

The CAS statement stated that Ahmad was found guilty of “violating the FCE for the following offences: Violation of articles 20 and 28 FCE: failure to record various financial transactions, acceptance of cash payments, bank transfers of bonuses and indemnities without a contractual or regulatory basis; Violation of articles 20 and 28 FCE: failure to record various financial transactions, acceptance of cash payments, bank transfers of bonuses and indemnities without a contractual or regulatory basis; and Violation of articles 20, 25 and 28 FCE: distribution of gifts and misappropriation of funds (use of CAF’s money to help finance an invitation to a pilgrimage to Mecca (Umrah) in favour of certain presidents of national federations, an invitation which was not directly related to football; contrary to the rest of the decision, this offence was only retained by a majority of the Panel and not unanimously).”

It has been alleged that Motsepe is FIFA’s preferred candidate after the gross violations of the Ahmad regime and Gianni Infantino had been accused of meddling in the affairs of CAF to favour the South African.