CAS upholds former CAF boss Issa Hayatou’s appeal over FIFA ban

Madrid, Feb 5 (EFE).- The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has lifted the suspension of one year and canceled the fine of 30,000 Swiss francs ($32,500) imposed by FIFA’s adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee on Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou.

Hayatou, former head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and former interim president of FIFA, was punished by the world’s governing body for soccer for allegedly breaching its “duty of loyalty” under Article 15.

The CAS has upheld the appeal filed by Hayatou against the sanction issued on Jun.17 last year banning him from participating in any football-related activity.

The adjudicatory chamber had ruled that Hayatou failed to fulfill his duty of loyalty as CAF president by signing an anti-competitive agreement with the French sports agency Lagardère Sport that was detrimental and caused significant damage to CAF financially amounting to 200 million Egyptian pounds, as well as in reputation.

In August 2021 Hayatou appealed to the CAS against the sanctions and the case was examined by a panel composed of the Dutch Manfred Nan, Iranian Hamid G. Gharavi and the Spaniard Jose J. Pinto, who held a hearing on Dec.7 over video conference.

At the conclusion of the arguments, the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to establish a violation of article 15.1 of the FIFA Code of Ethics under which Hayatou was charged.

Hayatou served as vice-president of FIFA, its board member and interim president between June 2015 and February 2016 following the resignation of the Swiss Jospeh Blatter over corruption cases affecting the body. EFE

jad/sc