By Akinwale Kasali
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, has ordered the reinstatement of Ahmad Ahmad as the President of Confederation of African Football, CAF.
Madagascar’s Ahmad was reinstated as CAF President following a ruling by the CAS on Friday 29th January, 2021, in Switzerland.
Ahmad was banned by FIFA, in November, for five years, after football’s world governing body found him in breach of a number of its code of ethics.
He appealed this decision at CAS, which issued a preliminary ruling on Friday.
Ahmad is still ineligible to contest CAF’s Presidential elections in March, however, since the CAS decision came after both the CAF’s Governance Committee and FIFA ‘s Review Committee met earlier this week to discuss the eligibility of candidates.
CAF says it will hear Ahmad’s appeal in full on March 2, with a decision issued before the CAF presidential elections on 12 March.
“Due to a risk of irreparable harm for Mr Ahmad if the disciplinary sanction is maintained during the period prior to the CAF elections, the CAS panel has upheld the request to temporarily stay the effects of the (FIFA ban),” CAS, sport’s highest legal body, said in a statement.
This effective suspension of the FIFA ruling will be in place ‘until the day that the final CAS award is issued.’
Since he was banned when FIFA met on Tuesday and CAF on Thursday, Ahmad was deemed ineligible to run.
He will now need to overturn the decision ruling him ineligible to run, since his appeal at CAS was not against the decision barring him from contesting the elections but against his FIFA ban.
As of this week, four candidates were cleared to run for the CAF presidential elections on 12 March. They are Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Patrice Motsepe (South Africa), Augustin Senghor (Senegal), Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania).
