Ahmad confirmed on Wednesday he will seek a second term in office when the continental football body heads to the polls in March.
“I’m proud of my achievements. I extend my thanks and gratitude for your support and assistance,” explained Ahmad while announcing his candidature.
An earlier statement from CAF suggested FA presidents from Algeria, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are the ones yet to publicly endorse Ahmad’s returns.
Ahmad’s candidature comes even as his first four-year term in office was littered with challenges, including a dramatic arrest in France in June of 2019 in the wake of corruption allegations and reports he was about to be sanctioned by the FIFA Ethics Committee.
Candidates seeking to contest against Ahmad have until November 12 to submit their papers.
Tunisia’s Tarek Bouchamaoui, who is a member of the CAF executive committee and FIFA Council, indicated his intention to challenge Ahmad but hasn’t received the required nomination from his national federation.
Ahmad, a politician, and former government minister from Madagascar, was a relative unknown at the top levels of African soccer when he won the presidency of CAF in 2017 with a stunning election victory over Issa Hayatou. Hayatou had been in charge for 29 years and was a FIFA veteran and the world body’s senior vice president at the time.
Ahmad promised to root out corruption and impose stricter ethics rules at CAF but was embroiled in a corruption scandal himself last year when he was detained and questioned by French authorities while attending a FIFA meeting in Paris. CAF also became so dysfunctional under his leadership that FIFA sent secretary general Fatma Samoura to CAF headquarters in Cairo for six months to run the troubled African Confederation.
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