CAF President Ahmad Ahmad suspended for 5 years on corruption charges by FIFA

Ahmad had “breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President”.

Ahmad Ahmad, the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 2017 March, has been suspended for five years by FIFA on corruption charges, as announced by the global governing body. Ahmad Ahmad, from Madagascar, who was approaching re-election in 2021, is banned for "governance issues", earlier on Monday.

In the statement, FIFA said Ahmad had “breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President”.

FIFA also charged him with a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs ($220,000) for the misdeeds related to “the organisation and financing of an Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca”. The charges are reportedly based on his involvement in CAF's dealings with a sports gear company.

Ahamd who stepped down for twenty days from his position last week after testing positive for coronavirus can plead the ban “from all football-related activity” at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In April 2019, the accusations were made by the former CAF official Amr Fahmy who wrote an official letter to FIFA and accused him of paying bribes to directors, using CAF funds for personal use, and sexually harassing a number of employees.

However, Ahmad was arrested ahead of 2019's women's World Cup in Paris at the FIFA Congress as an investigation in corruption, who later was released without any charges proved.

Ahmad's bid to remain head of CAF was earlier challenged by the president of the Senegalese Football Federation Augustin Senghor.