The acting head of African soccer, Constant Omari Selemani, has been disqualified from standing in March’s Confederation of African Football elections, effectively ending his tenure on the FIFA Council and as a vice president of CAF.
The FIFA review committee said on Wednesday Selemani had failed the eligibility test for a position on the FIFA Council "because of an ongoing formal investigation by the FIFA ethics committee”.
Selemani and CAF could not immediately be reached for comment.
Selemani had been seeking re-election to the FIFA Council when CAF holds its elections on March 12 in Rabat, Morocco.
FIFA Council members are automatically also members of CAFs executive committee and in mid-2019, Selemani was named CAF’s first vice president by then president Ahmad Ahmad.
Wednesday's decision follows just months after Ahmad was banned.
Ahmad was banned for five years by FIFA in November after being accused of abusing office, mishandling of funds and trading gifts. He has denied any wrongdoing.
There are no details of the ethics committee investigation into Selemani, who was appointed acting head of African football when Ahmad’s ban was announced and will continue until March’s elections.
Ahmad has also been ruled out of March’s elections, where four candidates are seeking the presidency -- Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast, Mauritania football association president Ahmed Yahya, Senegal FA president Augustin Senghor and South African billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe.
Five African seats on the FIFA Council will also be determined by the voting of the CAF member countries at the election.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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