The list is growing. A new name has joined the already generously provided ranks of leaders in the sights of justice. He is Malagasy. And carries a certain weight in the sports movement, since he chairs the African Football Confederation.
Ahmad Ahmad, 59, the president of CAF, was arrested on Thursday June 6, early in the morning, by French police at his Paris hotel. Present in the capital on the occasion of the FIFA Congress, he was interviewed by the services of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses, in the context of a case of corruption over a contract with an equipment manufacturer.
According to information from Young Africa, his arrest would be linked to the unilateral termination by CAF of its contract with the German equipment manufacturer Puma. At the initiative of the Malagasy leader, the African organization would have done business with a French company, Tactical Steel, based in La Seyne-sur-Mer.
At the time, Ahmad Ahmad swore to his great gods that he had made the decision to “ collegial and transparent manner. » But the former general secretary of CAF, Amr Fahmy, assures that the contract would have been favored by the proximity between Ahmad Ahmad and one of the directors of the French company. He also assures that its additional cost would reach 830.000 dollars.
The affair dates back several months. Last March, Amr Fahmy, now fired from his position as secretary general, sent the FIFA ethics committee a document compiling the numerous slip-ups of its president.
He accuses Ahmad Ahmad of having ordered him to pay $20.000 in bribes into the accounts of presidents of African football federations.
The same document reveals that the Malagasy leader allegedly harassed four women employed by CAF. He points to the decision taken by Ahmad Ahmad to increase Moroccan representation within the continental institution, in defiance of the statutes of the organization.
Finally, Ahmad Ahmad is said to have spent more than $400.000 from CAF funds on the purchase of cars in Egypt and Madagascar, where a satellite office was set up especially for him.
FIFA was quick to react. The organization chaired by Gianni Infantino published a press release on Thursday afternoon, where it explained that it was “not "unaware of the details of this investigation and therefore unable to comment.". It also recalls that everyone has the right to the presumption of innocence.
But the same press release insists: “ As the FIFA President reaffirmed yesterday, FIFA is firmly committed to eradicating all forms of wrongdoing at all levels of football. Anyone found guilty of illicit or illegal acts has no place in football. »
The future of Ahmad Ahmad at the head of African football undoubtedly hangs by a thread.
