Investigation launched into possible CAF rule breach

The Confederation of African Football has confirmed it has launched an investigation into allegations of breaches of governance and audit regulations within its secretariat, following media reports of complaints against secretary general Veron Mosengo-Omba.

In a statement issued on Thursday by the African Football Federation, it said the organisation would appoint an international law firm or an international auditing and professional services firm to investigate the alleged breach and submit a report to its executive committee.

Mosengo Omba’s name was not mentioned, but the secretary-general said on social media that he was under investigation.

“My efforts to turn things around and regulate this institution, which has sometimes been disrespected, are being sabotaged by an unforeseen report containing complaints without documented evidence,” he wrote on X on Wednesday.

“The planned independent investigation will expose the falsity and origin of this report,” he added.

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Mosengo Omba previously worked at FIFA and took up the position of CAF Secretary General three years ago.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe said in a statement on Thursday: “There is zero tolerance in CAF for corruption or breaches of CAF’s internal regulations on governance, auditing and transparency, as well as breaches of CAF and FIFA statutes and regulations.

“We have committed CAF to global best practices in governance, audit, transparency and ethics and in 2021 we established an internal governance and compliance department within CAF.

“This internal governance and compliance department brought to our attention an alleged breach of CAF’s internal audit and governance regulations.”

Motsepe added that CAF will discuss the report and if it finds any inappropriate conduct or behaviour, appropriate action will be taken immediately.