DR Congo’s former interim Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Constant Omari has been suspended from football for one-year by Fifa for breaking its ethics code.
The former Fifa Council member was found to have received benefits from Lagardere during negotiations between the French media company and Caf.
He is believed to have received in the region of 66,000 Euros, which Fifa has requested he pay as a fine.
Omari, who recently vacated his post as president of DR Congo’s football federation, entered into a plea bargain arrangement with Fifa.
“A formal investigation against Mr Omari was opened on 7 January 2021,” said Fifa in a statement.
“[It] concerned certain benefits accepted and received from Lagardere Sports, in relation to the negotiations that he conducted for an agreement between Caf and Lagardere Sports in connection with the commercialisation of certain TV rights licenced to the LCS company and to the collection of the latter’s outstanding debt.
“The negotiations, which were led by Mr Omari on behalf of Caf, resulted in contractual provisions that were particularly detrimental to Caf, causing significant financial damage to the confederation.”
“In this respect, the receipt of benefits created a conflict of interests that detracted from Mr Omari’s ability to perform his dues to Caf with integrity and in an independent and purposeful manner.”
In early 2019, Omari oversaw an amendment to the billion-dollar deal that Caf had made with Lagardere Sports in 2015.
Under this amendment, Caf agreed to pay Lagardere $6.7m for around $20m of debt, related to outstanding TV rights payments, owed by Beninois sports agency LC2 GROUP to the French company.
Omari’s ban will end on 18 June 2022, a year after it started.
Source: BBC
