Former Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou has on Friday been exonerated by the Court of Arbitration for sports (CAS).
The court which sat its headquarters in Zurich ruled against the ban imposed on Hayatou by the FIFA ethics committee in July last year.
The 57-year old Cameroonian was accused of getting involved in the Lagardere Sports deal over the media and marketing rights of competitions organised by CAF while he was the head of the African football ruling body.
But CAS has ruled out the claims and set Hayatou who one time served as an acting FIFA President discharged and acquitted.
“The Court of Arbitration for Sports [Cas] of Lusanne rendered on February 4, 2022, a sentence invalidating the decision rendered on June 17, 2021, by the Fifa Ethics Committee against Issa Hayatou,” read part of the statement from Cas.
“The said decision suspended Issa Hayatou, honorary president of Caf and honorary vice-president of Fifa, for one year, from any football-related activities.
“The Ethics Commission considered that Hayatou had been guilty of a violation of Article 15 of the Fifa Code of Ethics by signing alone, without the approval of the Caf Executive Committee, the contract granting the company Lagardere Sports the commercialization of Caf media and marketing rights.”
“The same commission held that Hayatou had breached any applicable tender procedure. He would thus have violated the duty of loyalty to the institution he presided.
“The CAS sentence, rendered free of charge, follows an appeal filed on August 24, 2021, by Hayatou, President of Caf from 1988 to 2017 and acting President of Fifa from October 2015 to February 2016.
“in addition to the upholding of the decision of the Ethics Committee, the CAS orders Fifa to contribute to the legal costs of Hayatou, who is deemed, according to the CAS award, not to have violated any provision of the Fifa Code of Ethics.”
Aside from the ban, Hayatou was hit with a fine of thirty thousand Swiss Franc (CHF 30,000).
Hayatou served as the acting Fifa president until February 26, 2016, when the previous president, Sepp Blatter, was banned from all football-related activities in 2015 as part of the Fifa corruption investigation of 2015.
