Lausanne (AFP)

Ahmad Ahmad sidelined: FIFA's internal justice suspended the president of the African Football Confederation (CAF) for five years on Monday for several ethical breaches including embezzlement, while the Malagasy leader was running for a second term .

The Congolese vice-president of CAF Constant Omari, who has been acting since mid-November while Ahmad Ahmad was recovering from the coronavirus, therefore retains this function, said the African football body, which must elect its new president on the 12th. March 2021.

Seized in 2019 by a complaint for "mismanagement" of a former secretary general of CAF, the Fifa ethics commission considered that Ahmad Ahmad "had failed in his duty of loyalty, granted gifts and other advantages, inappropriately managed funds and abused his function as CAF president ".

His investigation "focused on various issues related to the governance of CAF, including the organization and financing of a pilgrimage to Mecca, his connections with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel and other activities", explains Fifa in a press release.

"CAF and the President of CAF take note of this decision", merely commented on the African Confederation in a statement, while saying "worried about the consequences on its reputation".

This disciplinary procedure, the full motivation of which will be revealed within 60 days on the Fifa website, therefore partly overlaps with the criminal investigation opened in May 2019 in Marseille, in particular for corruption, and which had earned the Malagasy leader be arrested and placed in police custody before leaving without prosecution.

In this case, CAF had initially signed with Puma at the end of 2017 for the supply of equipment for the 580 volunteers of the African Nations Championship, but had broken this agreement in favor of the French SME Tactical Steel, for a amount greater than the initial contract.

- Four candidates -

Ahmad Ahmad, who succeeded Cameroonian Issa Hayatou in 2017, is therefore banned for five years "from any activity relating to football", at national and international levels, and may appeal against this suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The internal justice of Fifa has also imposed a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs, or 185,000 euros.

This former football coach and politician, who was Secretary of State for Sport and Minister of Fisheries in Madagascar, announced at the end of October that he would seek a second term at the head of CAF, although the first was enamelled by a series of controversies.

In the summer of 2019, Ahmad Ahmad asked for help from Fifa to supervise his organization, weakened by various governance problems.

Fifa No. 2 Fatma Samoura had notably carried out a six-month mandate but this one, which aimed to accelerate the reform process within the body, had not been renewed in early February 2020.

In addition, dismissed in April 2019, CAF secretary general Amr Fahmy sent a letter to FIFA in which he accused Mr. Ahmad of corruption - payment of bribes to several leaders, personal use of funds from the CAF - and sexual harassment against several Confederation employees.

Four candidates have declared themselves to take the head of African football: the Senegalese Augustin Senghor, lawyer and nephew of former president Léopold Sédar Senghor, the Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, reputed to be close to Ahmad Ahmad, the Ivorian Jacques Anouma and the billionaire South African Patrice Motsepe.

© 2020 AFP