CAS reduces Ahmad's ban to two years
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reduced former CAF president Ahmad Ahmad's ban from five to two years and cut his fine to 50,000 Swiss francs.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has reduced former CAF president Ahmad Ahmad's ban from the pursuit of any football-related activities, earlier imposed by FIFA, from five years to two years, as well as reducing his fine from 200,000 to 50,000 Swiss francs.
World football's governing body had earlier banned Ahmad from being part of any football-related activities for five years and decided to fine him 200,000 Swiss francs over some financial violations he was accused of.
Ahmad appealed FIFA's penalty in the CAS, with the Switzerland-based court announcing on Monday the reduction of the Malagasy's punishment. The CAS ruled last January that FIFA's penalty should be suspended until Ahmad's appeal and the case circumstances were reviewed.
Ahmad's chances of running for presidency vanish
The CAS' decision comes days prior to the CAF presidential elections, ruling out any chance of the Malagasy running for the position as he was found guilty of ethical violations that included the distribution of gifts, misappropriation of CAF financial resources, and using CAF money to invite presidents of national federations to pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, which is clearly unrelated to football.
CAF presidential election is set to be held in Morocco on Friday with most speculations favoring South Africa's Patrice Motsepe as several reports have recently confirmed that CAF called on other candidates to withdraw from the race and support Motsepe.