Former African Football boss, Issa Hayatou has become victorious in his appeal of a one-year ban earlier imposed by FIFA against him for alleged breaching of the code of Ethics. The court of arbitration for sports made public it's ruling in favor of the Cameroonian seasoned football official on Saturday, declaring there was “insufficient evidence” to support FIFA’s allegations of commercial malpractice.
The 75years old ban was lifted on the eve of the African Cup of Nations final staged in his country, Cameroun.
Hayatou was sanctioned last year by FIFA accusing him of having hand in a controversial $1 billion TV and marketing rights deal with France’s Lagardere Sport.
The deal, signed in 2015, gave exclusive rights to Lagardere of CAF-run competitions for 12 years from 2017 to 2028.
Hayatou then was the president of the Confederation of African Football for 29 years before he was kicked out by Ahmad Ahmad in the 2017 election.
He also served as interim FIFA boss for a short while when Sepp Blatter was suspended and before Gianni Infantino came on board in February 2016.
Consequently, the deal with Lagardere was scraped once his 29 years running of African Football came to an end. AFP
