The Confederation of African
Football (CAF) has fired its secretary after he made corruption accusations
against the president Ahmad Ahmad.
General secretary Amr Fahmy was
sacked after the Egyptian accused his boss 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 that investigates alleged ethics breaches, accuses Ahmad
of ordering his secretary-general to pay $20,000 bribes into accounts of
African soccer association presidents.
They included Cape Verde and
Tanzania.
The document also accused Ahmad
of costing CAF an extra $830,000 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; violating statutes to
increase Moroccan representation within the organisation; and over-spending
more than $400,000 of CAF money on cars in Egypt and Madagascar, where a
satellite office has been set up for him.
According to Reuters, Senior CAF
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fahmy was fired after
compiling the document with the allegations against Ahmad, from Madagascar, who
took the top African soccer 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 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
It 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
soccer 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, which have led to the indictment and jailing of numerous
senior soccer 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.
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
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com