Whistleblower fired after accusing CAF president of corruption
African football’s ruling body, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), has fired a senior official after he made corruption accusations against the organisation’s president, Ahmad Ahmad.
The development is a potential blow to world governing body FIFA’s efforts to clean up the game after a raft of scandals worldwide.
CAF sacked general secretary Amr Fahmy after the Egyptian accused 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 to a FIFA body which investigates alleged ethics breaches, was seen by Reuters.
It accuses Ahmad of ordering his secretary-general to pay 20,000 dollars (about N7 million or 15,256 pounds) bribes into accounts of African football association (FA) presidents.
They included FA presidents of Cape Verde and Tanzania.
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The document also accused Ahmad of costing CAF an extra 830,000 dollars (about N298.8 million) by ordering equipment via a French intermediary company called Tactical Steel.
Furthermore, it accuses him of harassing four female CAF staff, whom it did not name, and violating statutes to increase Moroccan representation within the organization.
He was also accused of over-spending more than 400,000 dollars (about N140 million) 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 allegations against Ahmad who took the top African football post two
years ago.
CAF confirmed to Reuters that Fahmy lost his job at an executive committee meeting in Cairo on Thursday, prior to the draw for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals.
It however declined to give more details about the reason for his dismissal.
“There’s no explanation. It’s the Executive Committee decision,” communications director Nathalie Rabe said in an email exchange with Reuters on Sunday.
Ahmad, who is also a vice-president of world governing body FIFA, did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations against him.
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 was replaced by Mouad Hajji, from Morocco.
The allegations against Ahmad follow a string of scandals related to FIFA’s practices in Latin America and Asia in recent years.
These 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 a four-year term —- as Ahmad is one of his deputies.
FIFA declined 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.
Ahmad, 59, served as Minister of Fisheries in Madagascar and in the country’s senate before a quick rise to the CAF presidency.
His accuser Fahmy, 35, was appointed as general secretary in late 2017, keeping up a family tradition that stretches across three generations.(Reuters/NAN)
