Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad has been found to have breached various codes of ethics, BBC Sport Africa understands.
On Wednesday, the Fifa vice-president from Madagascar announced his intention to go for a second term in office when Caf elections take place next March.
This could now be in doubt after the investigatory chamber of football’s world governing body determined that he has breached various codes of conduct.
The next step is for the adjudicatory chamber to hand out its sentencing, a source said, adding that this will possibly happen by the end of November.
Any ban is likely to rule out Mr Ahmad’s chances of standing for re-election, given he would have to pass an eligibility test to resume his place on the Fifa Council.
BBC Sport Africa understands that the alleged breaches include Mr Ahmad’s role in the controversial deal involving Tactical Steel.
Tactical Steel is a little-known French gym manufacturer, run by an old friend of Mr Ahmad’s then attaché Loic Gerand, which provided sportswear equipment to Caf in 2017 after an original deal with Puma was cancelled.
The deal with Puma, which was slightly smaller, was worth just under $250,000 while the alternative deal with Tactical Steel – for 22,000 items instead of 15,000 – came to just over $1m.
At the time, Mr Ahmad denied accusations of any wrongdoing in the deal as ‘totally false, malicious and defamatory’.
A Fifa spokesperson refused to comment on the ethics case when contacted by BBC Sport Africa.
“Please note that as a general policy, the independent Ethics Committee does not comment on potential ongoing proceedings nor on whether or not investigations are underway into alleged cases,” the spokesperson said.
“As usual, any information the Ethics Committee may like to share will be communicated accordingly upon their indications.”
