The Citizen (KZN)

Caf secretary kicked out for linking boss with graft

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The Confederat­ion of African Football (Caf) sacked its general secretary, Amr Fahmy, after he accused Caf president Ahmad Ahmad of bribes and misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to officials and an internal document.

The document, sent on March 31 by Fahmy, an Egyptian, to a Fifa body that investigat­es alleged ethics breaches, accuses Ahmad, 59, of ordering his secretary-general to pay $20 000 (R280 000) bribes into accounts of African football associatio­n presidents. They included Cape Verde and Tanzania.

The document also accused Ahmad of costing Caf an extra $830 000 by ordering equipment through a French intermedia­ry company called Tactical Steel. It further accuses him of harassing four female Caf staff, whom it did not name; violating statutes to increase Moroccan representa­tion within the federation; and overspendi­ng more than $400 000 of Caf money on cars in Egypt and Madagascar, where a satellite office has been set up for him.

Senior Caf officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fahmy was fired after compiling the document with the claims against Ahmad, from Madagascar, who took the top African soccer post two years ago.

Caf confirmed that Fahmy, 35, lost his job at an executive committee meeting in Cairo on Thursday, prior to the draw for the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

The federation declined to give more details about the reason for his dismissal.

“There’s no explanatio­n. It’s the executive committee decision,” Caf communicat­ions director Nathalie Rabe said in an e-mail on Sunday.

Ahmad, who is also vice-president of world governing body Fifa, did not respond to requests for comment on the allegation­s.

Requests for comment to the football presidents and authoritie­s of Cape Verde and Tanzania, and to Tactical Steel in France, were also not immediatel­y answered.

Fahmy has been replaced by Mouad Hajji, from Morocco.

His allegation­s against Ahmad follow a string of scandals related to Fifa’s practices in Latin America and Asia in recent years, which have led to the indictment and jailing of numerous senior football administra­tors.

The corruption scandals first broke in 2015.

The Caf case is potentiall­y problemati­c for Fifa president Gianni Infantino – set to be re-elected unopposed in June for another four-year term – as Ahmad is one of his deputies. Fifa declined to comment. “The ethics committee does not comment on potential ongoing proceeding­s nor on whether or not investigat­ions are underway into alleged ethics cases,” a spokespers­on said.

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