CAF continue cover-up as Ahmad cleans house and FIFA remains silent

By Andrew Warshaw

April 17 – Almost a full week after the second most powerful official in African football was sacked from his post, paying the price for corruption allegations swirling around his boss, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has finally acknowledged the change in a brief statement – but without any mention of the circumstances involved.

CAF general secretary Amr Fahmy was personally fired by CAF president Ahmad Ahmad at the opening of last week’s CAF executive meeting in Cairo and replaced by Moroccan official Hajji Mouad rather than with a fellow executive committee member.

Fahmy was dismissed after accusing his boss of misusing of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to high-ranking sources and an incriminating internal document that has reportedly been sent to FIFA’s ethics department.

Ahmad is apparently accused of ordering Fahmy to pay $20,000 into accounts of African football association presidents. The CAF leader is also accused of harassing a number of female CAF staff, who have not been named.  Insideworldfootball learned last week that Sara Kamel, who worked in Ahmad’s office as an assistant, was recently  reassigned though no details have emerged.

In a brief statement to Insideworldfootball, FIFA refused to confirm it had received a formal complaint against Ahmad giving the standard response that “the Ethics Committee does not comment on potential ongoing proceedings nor on whether or not investigations are underway into alleged ethics cases.”

But the new CAF secretariat is clearly doing its best to protect its president saying that at the executive committee meeting on April 11 and 12, the “central administration” of CAF had simply been “restructured” and that Fahmy’s position had been “revoked”  – without any explanation.

Not surprisingly, it heaped praise on Fahmy’s successor, Moroccan official Mouad Hajji, who it said was “known in the football world”.

It also emerged that Fahmy wasn’t the only senior CAF official ditched. In its statement, CAF said there had been an “amicable separation” with the Deputy Secretary General in charge of Administration and Finance, Essadik Alaoui.

Like Hajji, Alaoui is also Moroccan and it was not immediately clear why he too was removed, with no successor named.

Read more:

Exclusive: CAF chief Ahmad hit with multiple sexual harassment allegations

Exclusive: Africa’s shame. Ahmad’s corrupt CAF regime exposed as now sex pest allegations surface

Exclusive: Ahmad purges CAF executive firing Fahmy as Moroccans take more control

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