The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) might have provisionally suspended his ban by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) but Ahmad Ahmad is not out of the woods yet in his bid to regain the presidency of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

He thus faces a race against time with polls scheduled for next month in Rabat, Morocco.

The Madagascan official, found guilty by FIFA for financial misconduct and banned him for five years last November, still barbours ambitions of a return to CAF’s highest office.

However, in an about turn, the executive committee (Exco) of the continental mother body deemed FIFA should have the final say on the matter.

With FIFA unlikely to rescind its decision, it appears the 61-year-old’s prospects of leading the organisation, and the automatic rule as FIFA’s vice-president is null.

The CAF Exco met at a heated meeting in Cameroon ahead of the conclusion of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) where the board decided to ignore the independent Governance Committee’s advice.

The Exco opted to rely on FIFA’s position on the matter, which at the moment is a ban.

The meeting in Cameroon was Ahmad’s first official event since his ban by FIFA last November.

He left the meeting in a huff while his candidacy was under discussion.

Ahmad also lost in his attempts to have the March 12 polls postponed.

A postponement could have bought the beleaguered executive, found guilty of breaching FIFA’s Code of Ethics, some time.

It is believed a majority of the CAF Exco is advocating for Ahmad to excuse himself from the election.

Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Patrice Motsepe (South Africa), Augustin Senghor (Senegal) and Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania) are in the running for the polls.

Source: CAJ News Africa

It was the bombshell that finally shook African football, and brought the shame how Covid-19 was being transformed into a weapon on the continent, into the boardrooms of the game’s cartel of poor leaders.

With the game flying on autopilot, as its leaders find themselves battling a cocktail of challenges, including bans and looming sanctions, leadership has been a commodity very much in short supply.

And, with many of them stuck in the silly season of the forthcoming elections, set for March this year, it means some rogue elements have taken full advantage, to use Covid-19 as an extra weapon to fight the opposition.

This meant protests, from those who had fallen foul to these shenanigans, especially in the CAF inter-club competitions, fell on deaf ears.

Until the weekend, CAF president Ahmad Ahmad had been fighting a five-year ban, imposed by FIFA in November last year, for breaching the world football governing body’s code of ethics.

However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport threw Ahmad a lifeline when they set aside his ban, until early next month, pending the resolution of his appeal at sport’s ultimate organ for the determination of disputes.

Ahmad, whose reputation has been battered by corruption, resumed his role as CAF boss yesterday and is expected to officiate at the closing ceremony of the CHAN finals, in Cameroon, this coming weekend.

The Malagasy football official, though, remains barred, for now, from seeking re-election for the CAF presidency in elections set for next month.

The man who had replaced Ahmad, as acting president of CAF, Constant Omari, has also been barred by FIFA from seeking a position on the organisation’s powerful Executive Council because of pending investigations into his role in corruption.

With CAF virtually leaderless, the use of Covid-19 as a weapon, to ensure the playing field was not level in African football, went into overdrive.

However, things came to a head on Saturday, in the Cameroon city of Douala, when CAF were forced to intervene after an ugly row which, once again, highlighted how Covid-19 was being abused to weaken opponents.

Ahead of their CHAN finals quarter-final showdown against hosts Cameroon, the DRC were advised that 13 of their players, had tested positive for Covid-19.

Amid raging Congolese anger, CAF were forced to take the samples to a different laboratory and the number of positive cases suddenly, and mysteriously, shrunk to just two players, and the team’s physiotherapist.

Congolese coach, Florent Ibenge, whose side lost the match 1-2, gave a touching, if not sorry, tale of the state of African football right now.

“I was forced to take medications, when I was not sick. I never had Covid-19, but they said I was suffering from it,’’ he told the media.

“That is not good. I’m not the only one. I have players who never played, of which they did not have Covid-19. It is not normal. Football is all about joy and not to kill people.

“Yesterday results came out with 13 players positive for Covid-19. We contested the results and opted to do a new test.

“The results came out today and, in all our delegation, just three persons tested positive. It is a very bad image for Cameroon.’’

Ugandan newspaper, Daily Monitor, first warned that some dark artists were manipulating football results on the continent, using the pandemic as an excuse, in an article headlined — “How CAF clubs have ‘weaponised’ Covid,’’ and provided a template of how this was being done:

CAF rules say a team must present, at least, 15 players for a match. Host teams use this to ensure that visitors have fewer players and lose match by forfeiture.

Host teams also target certain players, in the visitor’s teams, and have them tested positive to miss out (featuring in a particular match).

Nigerian side’s Plateau United’s ordeal in Tanzania, where their two star players were ruled out of the second leg of their Champions League preliminary round tie against Simba SC, because they tested “positive’’ on arrival in Dar es Salaam, was highlighted as one of the cases.

The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria then took on the fight when Plateau United crashed 0-1 on aggregate and were eliminated by Simba SC.

“When the players and officials of Plateau United were tested in Nigeria for Covid-19, the result came out negative,’’ Plateau United coach, Abdul Maikaba, told the newspaper.

“On arriving in Tanzania, we presented the test results to the immigration officials.

“They now conducted another test on the team, five minutes before the game, and told the match commissioner that our two key players, who were supposed to start the game, tested positive.

“The entire team was surprised, but we could not complain to avoid CAF sanctions. I discovered that they picked out these two players, Sunday Adetunji and Ibrahim Abubakar because of the way they destabilised Simba FC players in the first leg.

“To make you understand that the people, who carried out the Covid-19 tests were biased, the name of our commissioner, who was registered as a member of the delegation, but did not travel with us because of government assignment, came out in the list of Covid-19 positive people.’’

The coach revealed that, after the game, they went to another hospital in Tanzania to test the players who were said to be Covid-19 positive, and the results came out negative.

FC Platinum were next to cry foul, when some of their key players were deemed ineligible to feature in the second leg of their Champions League match against Simba SC in Dar es Salaam, after they were said to have returned a Covid-19 positive result.

The results were handed to the Zvishavane side, just two hours before the match, forcing coach, Norman Mapeza, to make changes to his starting XI in a game in which the Zimbabwe champions crashed to a 0-4 defeat.

After the match, Simba SC coach, Sven Vandenbroeck, said “Corona can help, or will decide a lot of games in the future, and in the next months in the Champions League.”

The next day, he left the club.

Ghanaian powerhouse, Asante Kotoko, faced the same ordeal in Sudan when second of their players were said to have tested positive for Covid-19, leaving them without enough numbers to make a team for their Champions League match against Al Hilal.

Source: The Herald

Banned by FIFA in November for financial wrongdoing and abusing his position as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Madagascar’s Ahmad Ahmad was reinstated as the head of African soccer on Friday during a presidential election campaign pending his urgent appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The CAS said it granted Ahmad an interim ruling to freeze his five-year ban by FIFA ahead of an appeal hearing on March 2 and also promised a verdict the CAF elections on March 12 in Rabat, Morocco.

A Complex Legal Matter in Football

The court said there was a “risk of irreparable harm for Mr Ahmad” if he remained banned from leading the Cairo-based African soccer body while awaiting an appeal during the election campaign.

Ruling in Ahmad’s favour, the judges “emphasized that such a temporary decision does not prejudge in any way the decision it will take after analysing the merits of the case.”

Still, it was unclear whether Ahmad — a former minister in Madagascar’s government — could be recognised as a candidate in the weeks ahead.

Ahmad was barred this week from the election in a mandatory review by a FIFA review panel of each would-be candidate’s integrity and eligibility.

In a second decision on Friday, CAS rejected the soccer official’s request for a separate interim ruling and, instead, upheld FIFA’s right to make decisions about the African elections that were “aimed at preventing Mr Ahmad from participating.”

Background and Context

Ahmad was banned in November when FIFA ethics judges found he “breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds, and abused his position as the CAF president.”

He was elected in 2017 and was seeking a second four-year term leading African soccer as a FIFA vice president.

FIFA integrity checks were passed this week by four presidential candidates: Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast, Patrice Motsepe of South Africa, Augustin Senghor of Senegal, and Ahmed Yaya of Mauritania.

Source: Africa News

Uganda drew 1-1 with host country Cameroon in a fiery African Nations Championship (CHAN) warm-up match despite having a player sent off after only 12 minutes.

Ben Ocen was shown a straight red card following his reckless challenge on Alfred Meyong at Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, the 42,500-capacity national stadium in Yaounde.

Cameroon went ahead through Banga Bindjelme just a minute after Uganda were reduced to 10 men, but Milton Karisa levelled on 70 minutes and the home side had Basile Yamkam red-carded in the final minute.

Cameroon will face Niger and Zambia in other friendly matches as the central African nation prepares to host a major Confederation of African Football (CAF) male tournament for the first time since 1972.

The Nations Championship kicks off on January 16 in Yaounde with a Group A clash between Cameroon and Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso and Mali meet later in the second half of a double-header.

Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals of a tournament reserved for footballers playing in their country of birth.

Source: France 24

Malagasy Ahmad was a hot favourites to secure a second term as CAF president until FIFA barred him from all football activities for five years.

A FIFA statement said the 60 year old had “breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF president”.

With Ahmad sidelined, Ivorian Jacques Anouma, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, Senegalese Augustin Senghor and South African Patrice Motsepe will contest the election in Rabat on March 12.

Source: France 24