Wadie Jary, the former president of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF), has been sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges.

A spokesperson for the country’s sports ministry told the AFP news agency that the conviction related to an “unlawful contract between the FTF and a technical director” during Jary’s time in office.

The 52-year-old’s lawyers say he will appeal against the verdict.

Jary was first elected head of the FTF in 2012 and faced multiple allegations of impropriety during his reign, including match-fixing, financial misconduct and money laundering, all of which he denied.

Local media also reported on disputes between Jary and the sports ministry, while in January 2021 he received a four-year ban from the Tunisian National Olympic Committee after it claimed he had “breached national and international Olympic ethics codes”.

Despite that ban, Jary was elected to the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) executive committee just two months later.

He remained on the the committee while awaiting trial, with Caf general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba telling the BBC last year that the organisation was “not protecting crooks” and would make a decision on Jary once a verdict was delivered by the Tunisian legal system.

After the charges against him emerged, Jary was taken into custody in October 2023.

-BBC

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The highest court in global sport dismissed an appeal by former Spanish soccer head Luis Rubiales on Friday after he was banned from any football-related activity for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent at the 2023 women’s World Cup final.

World soccer governing body FIFA had banned Rubiales in October 2023 for three years and an appeals committee had also dismissed his appeal in January last year. The 47-year-old had the option to appeal the decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

However, a CAS panel determined that his behaviour at the presentation ceremony “constituted multiple and serious violations of the FIFA Disciplinary Code”, adding that it saw no reason to consider the sanction to be disproportionate.

“The appeal sought to set the contested decision aside, or in the alternative to set it partially aside and amend the sanction, or in the further alternative, apply any other disciplinary measures,” CAS said in a statement.

“The appeal by Mr Rubiales is dismissed and the contested decision is maintained.”

On Thursday, Spain’s High Court found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing Hermoso without her consent and fined him more than 10,000 euros ($10,454).

The ruling also banned Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), from going within a 200-metre radius of Hermoso.

Reuters

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A high court in Ghana has discharged Kwesi Nyantekyi, the former president of the country’s football association (GFA), after a complex five-year legal battle.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and corruption after being filmed taking money from a reporter during a sting investigation in 2018.

Alongside his Ghana Football Association role, Nyantekyi served as a vice-president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and was also a member of the Fifa council.

He was given a life ban by football’s world governing body for breaking bribery and corruption rules, but that sanction was later reduced to 15 years on appeal.

Nyantekyi pleaded not guilty to the charges that arose from the investigation, which sought to expose corruption in African football and was reported by BBC Africa Eye.

The case against him collapsed after Ghanaian state prosecutors failed to present any of their five potential witnesses, including undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

Anas had wanted to testify wearing a mask to protect his anonymity and because of security concerns.

Resignation after Number 12 documentary

Nyantakyi’s case stemmed from an investigative documentary titled ‘Number 12’.

Secretly recorded footage showed him receiving $65,000 (£51,500) cash from an undercover reporter pretending to be a businessman keen to invest in Ghanaian football.

He denied any wrongdoing, claiming the footage was doctored to incriminate him and that he had received a lesser amount in reimbursement of travel expenses.

Nyantakyi dismissed the investigation as “shoddy work with cut and paste” but later resigned from his positions at the GFA, Caf and Fifa before the latter banned him in October 2018.

He was the most prominent person among more than 100 football officials – most of them West African referees – who received cash during the Number 12 investigation.

Fifa rules forbid officials from receiving cash gifts.

Despite the documentary’s findings, the prosecution’s inability to secure testimony from their witnesses led to the decision of the high court in Accra to discharge Nyantakyi.

Delays after mask wrangle and murder

One major issue in the case was how Anas would appear in court as a witness.

In May 2023 an Accra High Court ruled that the undercover reporter could take to the stand wearing his trademark bead mask.

However, a Court of Appeal subsequently overturned that decision, insisting Anas should testify without the mask.

On Thursday, state prosecutors submitted a request for a one-month adjournment to work out their next move, but that was denied.

The five-year-long case was also delayed by the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an investigative journalist involved in the Number 12 documentary and a potential witness, by unidentified gunmen in January 2019.

Another charge against Nyantakye, for fraudulently using the name of former Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo, has also been dropped.

-BBC

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