Confederation of African Football : Ahmad Temporarily Restored As President

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has temporarily restored Madagascar’s Ahmad as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). This follows a ruling by the institution on Friday, January 29, 2021. 
Ahmad was banned by FIFA in November 2020 for five years after the football’s world governing body found him to have breached several of its ethics codes. Ahmad is still ineligible to contest CAF’s upcoming presidential election in March, as the CAS decision came after both CAF’s governance and FIFA’s Review committees sat earlier to approve candidates’ eligibility. Ahmad who will now resume his role as FIFA vice-president is however appealing his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which issued a preliminary ruling on Friday, January 29.  FIFA’s legal body says it will hear the appeal in full on March 2, 2021, with a decision issued before the CAF presidential election 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 election, the CAS panel has upheld the request to temporarily stay the effects of the (FIFA ban),” CAS said in a statement. 
This effective suspension on 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, CAF on Thursday met to vet presidential aspirants, Ahmad was deemed ineligible. He will now need to overturn the decisions ruling him ineligible to run, since his appeal at the CAS is not against the decision barring him from contesting the election but against his FIFA ban. Should CAS uphold FIFA’s ban when its hearing takes place in early March, Ahmad will be ruled out of the race once and for all. Yet if he can ...