The Confederation of African Football\u2019s general secretary, V\u00e9ron Mosengo-Omba, has been accused of running the organisation as his \u201cproprietorship\u201d and creating a toxic culture of fear where employees are fired for speaking out against him.<\/p>\n
Several former and current members of staff have told the Guardian there is an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia at the Caf headquarters in Cairo, where Mosengo-Omba is accused of sidelining colleagues and silencing whistleblowers.<\/p>\n
Those sacked include Hannan Nur \u2013 the former head of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) \u2013 who accused Mosengo-Omba in a damning report last year<\/a> of \u201cimpeding\u201d members of her department from performing their duties and, among other claims, of breaching internal governance and auditing regulations. It was later claimed by Caf\u2019s audit and compliance committee that there had been unauthorised interference from Mosengo-Omba in an attempt to \u201cwhitewash\u201d the subsequent investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Quick GuideHow do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?ShowDownload the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for ‘The Guardian’.If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you\u2019re on the most recent version.In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.Turn on sport notifications.<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who dares to speak up \u2013 anyone who is part of the report \u2013 is terminated, without cause, without any due process,\u201d said one senior employee who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. \u201cWe live in an organisation that deliberately hides the truth so as not to embarrass the secretary general and his entourage. Everything is political now.\u201d<\/p>\n Abiola Ijasanmi, the former Caf chief operating officer, was dismissed in April after making allegations similar to Nur\u2019s against the general secretary in another report. Noumandiez Dou\u00e9, the head of refereeing, and Ra\u00fal Chipenda, the director of development, were sacked in August.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have clear instructions to control information and prevent certain things from leaking out; that\u2019s how it is,\u201d said one communications officer who did not want to be named. \u201cWhen the two reports started to leak, they hunted down the mole \u2013 that was their concern rather than sorting out the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Employees claim the independent committees are no longer independent, with key decisions \u201cmanipulated\u201d or \u201cinfluenced\u201d by Mosengo-Omba\u2019s office. \u201cV\u00e9ron and some other directors are running Caf as their own proprietorship,\u201d a former senior staff member said. \u201cWhat is even more sad is the fact that the committees do not function. The independent committees are not independent. They\u2019re influenced. V\u00e9ron always tries to manipulate the decision and he\u2019s always influencing them.\u201d<\/p>\n Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, is a longstanding friend of V\u00e9ron Mosengo-Omba. Photograph: Chris Tanouye\/Fifa\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Others allege that staff linked to Mosengo-Omba can now make decisions outside their departments, breaching Caf statutes and internal procedures. Multiple sources also accused Mosengo-Omba, a longstanding friend and former university colleague of the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, of favouritism and abuse of office, claiming he has appointed associates and compatriots from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to senior positions for which they were not qualified.<\/p>\n \u201cHe abuses his office to have people from his home country and people he knows in positions that they\u2019re not qualified for,\u201d another senior staff member said.\u2028\u201cCaf is no longer pursuing a policy of development, but rather serving individual interests.\u201d<\/p>\n The allegations echo claims made in the GRC\u2019s report last year that was submitted to Caf\u2019s executive committee this year, which described a \u201cstressful, unethical and unprofessional environment\u201d under Mosengo-Omba\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n At the Caf general congress last week in the DRC, it announced profits of $9.48m for the 2023-24 financial year, which it said \u201creflects a strong increase in commercial revenues, driven by the growing global appeal of African football, the addition of new sponsors, and the implementation of strict financial controls by the Caf leadership\u201d. But sources have alleged that Caf\u2019s finances are fragile despite public claims of stability.<\/p>\n \u201cThe audit and compliance committee tried to raise the issue, but [Mosengo-Omba\u2019s] modus operandi is to silence you or you\u2019re out,\u201d one insider said.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The alleged misuse of Fifa Forward funds \u2013 development money intended for African football projects \u2013 remains a particular concern. Staff claim that Mosengo-Omba has taken \u201csole control\u201d of the funds, leading to irregularities that have not been independently audited.<\/p>\n Staff have also alleged that president Patrice Motsepe, who was re-elected unopposed for a second term in March, has rarely set foot in the Caf headquarters. \u201cMotsepe is never here,\u201d one senior employee said. \u201cIn four years of his mandate, he only came twice and met the staff once. He doesn\u2019t have a clue what\u2019s going on inside his own confederation.\u201d<\/p>\n Mosengo-Omba is widely regarded as the de facto head of Caf, consolidating power over day-to-day operations, even though the most senior position is held by Motsepe. Mosengo-Omba turns 66 this month, the statutory retirement age under Caf\u2019s regulations, but has indicated he will remain in post and relocate to Morocco for the men\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations that starts in December. \u201cHe should not continue working beyond the 15th of October,\u201d said one official.<\/p>\n Nur has filed a case for wrongful dismissal at the Cairo Regional Centre for International Arbitration that is expected to be heard in the coming months.<\/p>\n Caf did not respond to detailed questions about the allegations. Mosengo-Omba has previously denied wrongdoing in relation to the allegations made in the GRC report, insisting he has \u201cacted with full integrity\u201d and that \u201cindependent investigations will expose the falsity\u201d of the claims.<\/p>\n Motsepe has expressed \u201ctotal confidence\u201d in Mosengo-Omba and said Caf was awaiting the findings of an independent inquiry set up this year to look into the GRC report\u2019s allegations. However, for many within the organisation, the damage to morale and credibility is done.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel very sorry for Caf and African football,\u201d one long-serving employee said. \u201cWe are no longer pursuing development, only protecting people\u2019s personal power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Confederation of African Football\u2019s general secretary, V\u00e9ron Mosengo-Omba, has been accused of running the organisation as his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-212165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}