Ahmad Ahmad has been reinstated as President of Confederation of African Football (CAF) following a ruling by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The 61-year-old was banned by FIFA in November for five years and handed a $220,000 fine after football’s world governing body found him to have breached several of its ethics codes.
Read Also: Corruption: FIFA Bans CAF President, Ahmad Ahmad For Five Years
Ahmad was accused of disloyalty, offering and accepting gifts, abuse of office and misappropriation of funds. However, the former government official in Madagascar denied the allegations and appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has now ruled in his favour.
CAS made a preliminary ruling on Friday, restoring the administrator back to his post, and a final decision will be made before CAF presidential elections on March 12.
At that time, the FIFA ethics committee found;
Ahmad had breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President.
CAS, sport’s highest legal body, in its preliminary ruling on Friday has now said;
Due to a risk of irreparable harm for Mr. Ahmad, if the disciplinary sanction is maintained during the period prior to the Caf elections, the Cas panel has upheld the request to temporarily stay the effects of the [Fifa ban].
The court, however, rejected a request from Ahmad to prevent the world football governing body from disallowing him from participating in the CAF elections.
It added;
The arbitral Panel has rejected the request for provisional measures filed by Mr Ahmad seeking that an order be imposed preventing Fifa from taking any decision aimed at preventing Mr Ahmad from participating in, or aimed at making it difficult for him to participate in,the election for the Caf presidency scheduled for 12 March 2021.
