Ahmad Ahmad- FIFA controlling Africa
Former CAF president Ahmad Ahmad claims FIFA ethics committee lacks independence and the game’s governing body is controlling Africa for strategic reasons, following the end of his two-year ban from football.
63-year-old Ahmad, who took charge of CAF in 2017, prior to his 2020 suspension for breaching various Fifa ethics codes, says he wants to help local football in his homeland Madagascar after returning to the sport in December.
Meanwhile, his former ally Gianni Infantino will be handed another four-year term since the FIFA president’s control of world football is such that no rival candidate was prepared to contest Thursday’s elections, the first on African soil, being held in Rwanda.
My suspension was political,” Ahmad told BBC Sport Africa, while recalling a heated meeting between CAF and FIFA in Morocco.
“Upon leaving the meeting, some Fifa people were telling my colleagues that I had signed my death warrant. What is a death warrant in football? It is surely to use the ethics committee, the lethal weapon they were using at the time.”
As the world’s largest confederation with 54 members and thus 54 votes just one less than UEFA with next biggest African votes are strategically important to the incumbent and aspiring FIFA presidents.
Ahmad added “it’s for electoral reasons in relation to UEFA which they can’t control”.
“FIFA’s agenda is to have Africa in full with them because they know the majority of Africans are always going to follow FIFA instructions”.
Writing by Tersoo Nicholas