Leaked Recording Reveals Musingho Umba's Pressure on CAF Audit Committee

Véron Musingho Umba, the former Secretary General of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the sole candidate for the presidency of the Congolese Football Association, faces a new crisis hours before the elections, following accusations related to intimidation and pressure on members of CAF's Audit and Compliance Committee during his tenure in the administrative post within the continental federation.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the accusations stem from a meeting held on October 19, 2024, which lasted about two hours between Musingho Umba and members of the Audit and Compliance Committee, where he threatened committee members with lawsuits and reporting them to the Ethics Committee of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), after they approved the Governance, Risk, and Compliance Report for the 2023-2024 season, which included direct criticism of his administrative and ethical conduct.

The newspaper indicated that it listened to a full recording of the meeting, while quoting one of the committee members as saying that Musingho Umba himself called for the meeting instead of the committee's chairman, Moroccan Mohamed El Zazi, adding that the atmosphere was normal at first, before quickly turning tense when talk began about taking legal action against committee members if the report included any observations related to financial and administrative problems within CAF. The source said the relationship between the Audit Committee and the Secretary General's office was good in the early stages, but it deteriorated when discussion began on audit reports and questions related to governance and financial statements, confirming that some meetings were attended by legal and administrative officials who were not supposed to participate in such meetings of the oversight committee.

The committee member added that Musingho Umba considered the committee members involved in a smear campaign against him, and threatened to report them to FIFA, asserting that what was mentioned in the report could lead to international sanctions. He also hinted at resorting to lawyers and legally prosecuting all members, noting that the pressure led some members to consider resigning more than once.

A large part of the crisis is based on a 9-page internal report prepared by the head of CAF's Governance, Risk, and Compliance Department, Hanane Nour, who confirmed in the report that she faced direct obstruction while performing her duties, pointing to unjustified interference from the Secretary General's office in the work of the Governance and Compliance Department. The report also spoke about obstructing the review and approval of several documents related to compliance and governance programs within CAF. Nour wrote in the report that the Secretary General's office kept these documents for a long period without approving them, considering that this created an atmosphere of mistrust within the institution, and reinforced a feeling of professional incompetence within the work environment.

Hanane Nour was dismissed from her position last year, before filing a lawsuit against CAF for workplace harassment and wrongful termination.

Musingho Umba did not respond to The Guardian's requests for comment on the recent accusations, but he previously denied committing any violations, asserting that he acted with complete integrity, and that any independent investigation would reveal the falsity of the allegations against him.

For his part, Miguel Maduro, former chairman of FIFA's Governance Committee, called for opening an independent investigation into the dismissal of Hanane Nour, considering that the timing of her removal raises suspicions and warrants a detailed investigation to uncover the truth of what happened within the corridors of CAF.

Musingho Umba resigned from his post as CAF Secretary General last March, despite exceeding the mandatory retirement age of 63, announcing his desire to devote himself to his private projects after more than three decades of work in international football.

These developments come at a time when Musingho Umba is preparing to assume the presidency of the Congolese Football Association by acclamation, after all his competitors withdrew or were excluded from the electoral race, amid continuing legal debate over his status regarding nationality, after he previously renounced Congolese nationality to obtain Swiss citizenship, at a time when the constitution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo prohibits dual citizenship.