Benin FA holds elections despite court injuctions News

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Benin FA holds elections despite court injuctions

By Daily Sports on June 11, 2016

Benin's Football Federation says it held its elections on Friday, a day later than scheduled and despite a court injunction.

The team are serving a ban from world football which the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said could be lifted if polls were held by 11 June.

Benin were keen to do so in order to play Equatorial Guinea in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.

If they do not play that tie they face disqualification from the competition.

Anjorin Moucharafou was voted in as president by the 40 of the 42 delegates present.

He has held the post previously but is a controversial figure, having been accused of embezzling US$650,000 sponsorship money from a mobile phone company between 2008 and 2010.

The election was attended by delegates from Caf and Fifa but neither governing body has confirmed whether it considers the elections to be valid and lifted the team's suspension.

On Thursday a court in Porto Novo insisted the polls, which had been set for that day, should be delayed indefinitely as it upheld a complaint by 20 of the country's football clubs.

The clubs argued the current normalisation committee running the sport in the country had violated the statutes of Benin Football Federation in organising the elections.

Originally the Squirrels should have played Group C opponents Equatorial Guinea on 5 June.

A Squirrels squad had been in Cotonou training for the match while the already eliminated Equatorial Guinea cancelled a friendly against Uzbekistan in Tashkent last week, because of the qualifier.

If Benin are not disqualified they will need to win their final two games against Equatorial Guinea and Mali to qualify for the Nations Cup as the winners of Group C.

Football's world governing body, FIFA, banned Benin from world football in May after a similar court ruling but stipulated the sanction could be lifted when elections had been held.

•Text courtesy of bbc.com

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 11, 2016