CAF Confirms 5 Presidential Candidates, Disqualifies Ahmad

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CAF Confirms 5 Presidential Candidates, Disqualifies Ahmad

T he Confederation of African Football (CAF) has received and is currently evaluating five candidatures for the presidency of the body whose election will take place on 12 March in Rabat, Morocco.

CAF announced that it had officially validated two of these candidatures: that of Augustin Senghor, president of the Senegalese Football Federation, and that of Ivorian Jacques Anouma, former president of the Ivorian Football Federation.

Meanwhile, the candidacy of the outgoing President Ahmad Ahmad was declared ineligible due to his five-year suspension. His ineligibility comes despite his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

However, the bids of Ahmed Yahya, president of the Mauritanian Football Federation and South African billionaire, Patrice Motsepe who is president of the Mamelodi Sundowns Club were admitted.

Motsepe, a mining magnate had his candidacy for the role approved and supported by the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) in November, last year.

Banned CAF president, Ahmad has now been officially disqualified from the CAF presidential election coming up in Morocco in March. According to CAF release, five candidatures officially stood for CAF Presidency and sixteen candidatures registered for position of Members of CAF Executive Committee.

Also, the suspected lead candidate, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe of South Africa has not been fully cleared by the CAF Governance Committee as he, along with Mauritania's Ahmed Yahya are still under scrutiny.

However, their candidatures were deemed admissible as the committee considered that further checks were necessary before a final decision. To this end, a hearing of these candidates will be organized in Cairo on January 28 ,2021.

The CAF Governance Committee has ruled Ahmad as ineligible as the Madagascan was last November slammed with a ban by FIFA. He is the only CAF president to suffer that fate in the 64-year history of the confederation.