Caf’s rotten and filthy financial dealings exposed
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) bosses and their football association colleagues have been exposed by Fifa commissioned investigations that unearthed a number of shady financial dealings, including 35 ‘unusual’ payments totaling $8.3 million (about Sh830 million) in the past four years.
A Fifa task force chaired by Secretary General Fatma Samoura has recommended due diligence be carried out on all Fifa development fund and Fifa Forward payment to all of Africa’s 54 member associations.
OB VAN
It is from this fund and a similar payment that Football Kenya Federation (FKF) received about Sh100 million to purchase an Outside Broadcast (OB) van three years ago.
This transaction did not materialize after FKF explained that the amount was paid to a company for the purchase of the said vehicle. Only for the company to go bust a couple of months later.
However, FKF Secretary General Barry Otieno maintains the football body’s innocence.
“I repeat, we did nothing wrong and have shared documentation on the dealings with any interested stakeholder,” Otieno insisted at previous interviews.
According to the BBC, an audit carried out by Pricewaterhouse Coopers suggests among others, that Caf’s accounting was ‘unreliable and not trustworthy’ and that a majority of transactions, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of United States dollars, are transacted in hard cash.
BANNED
Some of the suspicious transactions include $400,000 (about Sh40 million) wired to the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) meant to stage a single U20 football game.
Similarly, the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) is reported to have received Sh500 million to organise an U17 match in Burundi.
Meanwhile, three transactions work $100,125 (about Sh10 million) each supposedly made for the benefit of the Liberian Football Associations ended up in bank accounts in Estonia and Poland.
Other 48 separate payments worth Sh1.1 billion over the past two years had insufficient documentation. Another Sh35 million was withdrawn in cash and used for ‘payroll expenses’.
The development comes two months after the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) boss Moses Magogo was banned for three months after he was found guilty of selling Fifa World Cup match tickets meant for Ugandans in the black market in the USA.