The Court of Arbitration for Sport have reduced the sentence of former Confederation of African Football President, Ahmad Ahmad, to two years.
Ahmad was handed a five-year ban from all football-related activities after being found guilty of misusing CAF’s finances for his own benefit.
In their investigations, FIFA found many CAF-related governance issues such as the organisation and financing of an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca, his involvement in CAF’s dealings with the sports equipment company Tactical Steel, among other activities.
Following the ruling, Ahmad’s legal team appealed the decision to CAS as they believe the “decision was not rendered fairly and impartially”.
CAS approved their request, and following a hearing which took place on March 2, his ban was reduced to two years instead of five.
In their media release, CAS revealed that Ahmad was held accountable for the resources he used to travel to Mecca.
However, they claim that he didn’t breach any of the contracts with Tactical Steel.
“On the other hand, the Panel cleared Mr. Ahmad of any breach of the ‘Tactical Steel’ contracts: the Panel considers that the documents in the file do not support the conclusion that Mr. Ahmad would have received any personal benefit, in particular in the context of the transaction with Tactical Steel for the equipment for the 2018 African Nations Championship (no breach of the duty of loyalty and no abuse of power (Articles 15, 25 and 28 FCE)),” CAS wrote in their medial release.
Ahmad was among the five candidates set to participate in the CAF elections, which include Ahmad Yahya from Mauritania, Jacques Anouma from Ivory Coast, Patrice Motsepe from South Africa and Augustin Senghor from Senegal.
Both Anouma and Senghor pulled out of the race and now Ahmad will be forced to join them as his ban doesn’t allow him to run for the elections.