April 18 – One of the African countries caught up in the scandal over the activities of CAF president Ahmad Ahmad has denied reports that its boss received personal payments authorised by Ahmad.
Last week CAF general secretary Amr Fahmy was fired by Ahmad at the CAF executive meeting in Cairo 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 several African football association presidents including Cape Verde and Tanzania as part of a $100,000 grant.
But in the latest twist to the story, Cape Verde FA president Mário Semedo (pictured) admitted he received the money but insisted it was perfectly above board.
In a statement to local journalists, Semedo denied “any involvement” in any corruption scheme saying the money was a legal grant that CAF had decided at their 2017 General Assembly to donate annually to the presidents of each African Federations.
But whilst grants to national associations are de rigueur, it is highly irregular, whatever the circumstances, for regional confederations to make payments to individual national federation presidents.
On Wednesday the new CAF secretariat finally admitted that at the executive committee meeting on April 11 and 12, the “central administration” of CAF had been “restructured” and that Fahmy’s position had been “revoked” – but gave no explanation as to why.
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