CAF validates Ahmad for March 12 polls, FIFA block remains

Ahmad Ahmad, the temporarily reinstated president of the Confederation of African Football, CAF; is eligible to seek re-election, the body's commission on governance ruled today.

The Malagasy, banned by FIFA in November 2020 for financial wrongdoing and abusing his position was reinstated as the head of African soccer governing body in late January 2021.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) at the time said it granted Ahmad an interim ruling to freeze his five-year ban by FIFA ahead of an appeal hearing. It had also promised a verdict the CAF presidential elections on March 12 in Rabat, Morocco.

The CAF commission ruling means that Ahmad is now per CAF rules a candidate for presidential election slated for March 12.

"But he will NOT be eligible to run until also restored as a candidate by Fifa," BBC sports journalist Piers Edwards tweeted. The world football governing body has yet to rule on the issue.

Piers added: "he may have been restored as a candidate by CAF's Governance Committee but not by CAF's ExCo, which determined today that FIFA must have the final say on whether Ahmad can run."

The candidacies of Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya and South African Patrice Motsepe for the CAF presidency were validated by FIFA after that of Senegal's Augustin Senghor and Ivorian Jacques Anouma had earlier been passed.