The Court of Arbitration for Sport has lifted the ban against former FIFA top official Issa Hayatou. The Cas now announced this.
The longtime former head of the African Football Confederation Caf and former vice president of the world association was banned for a year from all football activities by the FIFA Ethics Committee last August. In addition, the now 75-year-old from Cameroon had been fined the equivalent of a good 32,000 euros.
Hayatou had lodged an objection to this. This has now been granted, as the Cas announced on Saturday. Hayatou is said to have given preference to an applicant in his capacity as café boss when awarding television and marketing rights from 2014 to 2017, thus preventing competition to the detriment of the confederation.
According to the Cas statement, however, there is insufficient evidence of a violation of the FIFA code of ethics, which is why the ban must be lifted. After 29 years at the helm of the Caf, Hayatou lost the 2017 presidential election to his then challenger Ahmad Ahmad, who has since been suspended.