FIFA’S African football takeover plan set for court challenge

FIFA’S plan to take over the running of African football is set to face a possible roadblock with an executive committee member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) saying he will challenge the decision in court, reports Reuters. Hasan Bility, who is from Liberia and a CAF executive committee member for last two years, said he will ask the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to declare invalid the agreement by which FIFA secretary general, Fatma Samoura will be sent on a secondment to overhaul the African governing body. Bility said he also wants to ask the court to compel CAF to start a forensic audit of its finances, which he said the executive committee had previously agreed to but CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad then stalled.

CAF is in crisis following corruption allegations against Ahmad, which he has

denied.

Ahmad was reported in March to FIFA’S ethics committee for alleged corruption and harassment by CAF general secretary, Amr Fahmy. Fahmy was then fired.

He was detained in June by French police in Paris where he was questioned over a sportswear deal between CAF and a French company in which the African body is said to have paid exorbitant prices for equipment it could have got much cheaper directly from the manufacturers.

In a statement released to the media yesterday, former Liberian Football Association president, Bility said Ahmad must resign and the proposed FIFA takeover be cancelled.

“In an attempt to salvage CAF from imminent implosion and irreversible reputational damage, FIFA proposed a poorly conceptualised and worse executed agreement,” Bility said.

“Logically, and in a sane world, the acquiescence by the CAF leadership that they have been unable to manage their own affairs ought to have been followed by quick resignation of its top leaders.

“It is clear to me and many others that the agreement as currently structured has the sole purpose of shielding and cleansing CAF President Ahmad from the crimes he has committed – financial impropriety, sexual harassment and nepotism.”

FIFA has confirmed there is an ethics investigation into Ahmad, although he was yet to be sanctioned.

Ahmad has not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the specific allegations against him.

Bility also claimed FIFA President Gianni Infantino has seized on the opportunity to get rid of his secretary general.

Excited distributors of the Nigerian Breweries Plc. brands and the Portfolio Manager, National Premium, Sarah Agha (sixth from the left) at the Cairo International Stadium’s main entrance just the final match of the 2019 African Cup of Nations tournament in Cairo, Egypt…at the weekend.