Ahmad restored as CAF president

Ahmad has been restored as the Confederation of African Football president following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The man from Madagascar 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.

The Malagasy appealed his decision at CAS, which issued a preliminary ruling on Friday.

However, Ahmad is still ineligible to contest CAF’s presidential elections in March however, since the CAS decision came after both the CAF’s Governance Committee and FIFA’s Review Committee had met earlier this week to discuss the eligibility of candidates.

CAS stated it will hear Ahmad’s appeal in full on March 2, with a decision issued before the CAF presidential elections on March 12th.

“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),” CAS said in a statement.

This effective suspension of the FIFA ruling will be in place “until the day that the final CAS award is issued.”

He will now need to overturn the decisions ruling him ineligible to run, since his appeal at CAS was not against the decision barring him from contesting the elections but against his FIFA ban.

Four candidates have been cleared to run for the CAF presidential elections: Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast), Patrice Motsepe (South Africa), Augustin Senghor (Senegal), Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania).