Ahmad Ahmad has returned as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president after a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The African football administrator was banned by Fifa in November for five years after football’s world governing body found him to have breached several of its ethics codes.
He was accused of disloyalty, offering and accepting gifts, abuse of office, and misappropriation of funds and was handed a $200,000 fine by FIFA.
However, the 61-year-old CAF president denied the allegations and appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has now ruled in his favor.
Cas made a preliminary ruling on Friday, restoring the administrator back to his post, and a final decision will be made before the Caf presidential elections on March 12.
“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],”
According to the ruling, the head of African football is still ineligible to contest Caf’s presidential elections in March, 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.
