CAF President Patrice Motsepe has acknowledged serious flaws in the composition of the organization's judicial bodies, admitting that a member of the Appeals Board should never have been appointed due to a clear conflict of interest.
Responding to a journalist's question in Cairo regarding the case between Senegal and CAF, Motsepe addressed concerns that Moez Nasri from Tunisia a sitting federation president was serving on the appeals board. “But come on, what is this? How did he end up there?” Motsepe said, adding that Nasri “shouldn't have been there.”
The president's remarks followed pointed questioning about how such a political figure could sit on a judicial panel meant to be independent. The journalist also questioned why CAF's Governance, Risk, and Compliance department failed to flag the conflict.
Motsepe conceded that the situation highlighted a lack of rigor in the selection process for the Disciplinary Committee and Appeals Board. “Of course, we must draw lessons from this kind of thing,” he stated.
Motsepe pledged that moving forward, greater scrutiny will be applied to ensure the complete independence of CAF's judicial bodies. While declining to comment on the active CAS case involving Senegal, he emphasized that the integrity of the organization's disciplinary structures is non-negotiable.