World Soccer - UK (2020-04)

Whistle-blower’s death shines light on Africa’s problems

Amr Fahmy

T

he death, from an

aggressive brain

tumour, of former CAF

general secretary Amr

Fahmy has brought

renewed focus to the

fact his whistle-blowing

on corruption in the African game has

yet to be dealt with by FIFA.

It includes long-standing allegations

of corruption against CAF president

Ahmad and a more recent audit of the

confederation’s finances which show

dubious spending of millions of dollars.

Fahmy, 36, was already being treated

for the disease when he was at CAF

and reported Ahmad to FIFA’s ethics

commission for alleged fraud and

corruption. A body of documents

detailing false expenses, profligate

spending and a dirty-looking deal with

a French company belonging to a close

friend of Ahmad were sent to FIFA, as

well as being widely leaked.

While FIFA’s supposedly independent

ethics committee acknowledged it was

investigating the allegations, it is now

almost 18 months since they

were handed the damning evidence,

yet Ahmad remains in control of the

African game.

Fahmy lost his job in April last

year because of his whistle-blowing,

summarily fired during a meeting of the

executive committee. He had already

taken several months off trying to fight

the disease and when World Soccer met

him in Paris in November he was still

being treated but hopeful of recovery.

In December he made a low-key

announcement that he would challenge

Ahmad for the CAF presidency but he

died two months after that.

It was FIFA president Gianni Infantino

who had encouraged him to submit the

documents to the ethics committee, he

said. But the fact that the committee

has sat on the evidence since November

2018 has led to the conclusion that it has

been politically prudent for Infantino to

tell them to hold off on any action and

keep Ahmad in place

But that might not be for long now

after a fall out in January when Ahmad

refused to allow FIFA general secretary

Fatma Samoura to extend her six-month

tenure cleaning up CAF’s tawdry affairs.

That has left Ahmad vulnerable to

FIFA finally taking action against him

and many of his cohorts.

The leaking of the audit report

that FIFA had ordered of CAF’s books

revealed a damning culture of African

football leaders using the organisation

as a cash-clearing house and highlighted

several blatant misuses of money.

The executive summary, which

ran to 55 pages, highlighted “there

was no proper accounting for 2015”

and that “for 2019, there was no

accounting between January

and June”.

Fahmy’s successor as general

secretary was Mouad Hajji, a dentist

by profession who had worked in the

sports ministry in his home country of

Morocco and was recommended by Fouzi

Lekjaa, the CAF vice-president who is

seen by many as having a powerful hold

over Ahmad.

Hajji quit in February, citing personal

reasons, but more likely, as one senior

official told World Soccer, he was

“jumping off a sinking ship”.

Hajji had quickly gained a reputation

for tardiness and was the subject of

frequent complaints from member

associations. “He was hardly capable of

Headliners

Whistle-blower...

Fahmy at a CAF

conference

“He was hardly

capable of replying

to a letter”

A CAF official on Mouad Hajji