Véron Mosengo-Omba has been named Confederation of African Football general secretary ©FIFA

Former FIFA employee Véron Mosengo-Omba has been named Confederation of African Football (CAF) general secretary, following the election of Patrice Motsepe as the organisation’s new President.

Mosengo-Omba, an ally of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, had been working for the global governing body as its chief member associations officer.

The governing body said Mosengo-Omba initially joined FIFA in 2016 and helped to support member associations to implement the FIFA Forward development programme.

FIFA credited Mosengo-Omba with managing relationships with all FIFA member associations and continental confederations in his role.

This included supporting the 54 African member associations in their FIFA Forward projects, in the development of youth and women’s football throughout the continent, as well as the recent implementation of the FIFA COVID-19 Relief Plan.

"On behalf of all of FIFA, we would like to thank Véron Mosengo-Omba for his excellent work and wish him the very best of luck in his next challenge as CAF General Secretary," a joint statement from Infantino and FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura read.

"FIFA also looks forward to working with him on future projects in helping to project African football to the summit of world football."

According to the BBC, Mosengo-Omba read law together with Infantino at university and was one of two FIFA employees seen talking to the CAF Presidential candidates prior to the election.

Ivorian Jacques Anouma, Senegal’s Augustin Senghor and Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya formed part of the meeting.

The trio agreed to withdraw from the election process in favour of other leadership roles.

Senghor and Yahya named first and second vice-president respectively.

Patrice Motsepe was named CAF President on Friday ©Getty Images
Patrice Motsepe was named CAF President on Friday ©Getty Images

Anouma has become a special advisor to Motsepe.

Infantino has denied influencing the outcome of the election.

The FIFA President, who travelled to several nations in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the election, has offered his support to the new CAF leadership.

The CAF has also confirmed the appointments of Djibouti’s Suleiman Waberi, Cameroon’s Seidou Mbombo Njoya and Comoros’ Kanizat Ibrahim as the organisation’s third, fourth and fifth vice-presidents.

Ibrahim is the first woman to be a CAF vice-president.

Yahya has also been co-opted onto the CAF Executive Committee, it has been confirmed.

The election of South Africa's Motsepe ended the four-year reign of Ahmad, who became CAF President in 2017.

Madagascar's Ahmad had hoped to stand for re-election before being hit with a five-year ban by the FIFA Ethics Committee last November.  

Following an appeal from Ahmad, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced his suspension to two years after clearing him of any wrongdoing concerning Tactical Steel contracts.

A CHF200,000 (£154,000/$220,000/€180,000) fine was also reduced to CHF50,000 (£39,000/$54,000/€45,000).

Ahmed was guilty of "failure to record various financial transactions, acceptance of cash payments, bank transfers of bonuses and indemnities without a contractual or regulatory basis", the CAS ruled.

The CAS also determined that Ahmad had violated rules concerning distribution of gifts and misappropriation of funds over a pilgrimage to Mecca which was partially funded with CAF money.