CAS rules Anouma out of African football election

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -FIFA executive committee member Jacques Anouma has lost his legal challenge to be a candidate for the African football presidency against longtime incumbent Issa Hayatou.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it dismissed Anouma's appeal against the Confederation of African Football's refusal to accept his leadership bid.

Hayatou, a FIFA vice president from Cameroon, will be the only candidate to extend his 26-year CAF reign at its congress this weekend in Marrakech, Morocco.

Hayatou steered changes in election rules last September which allowed only "current or former members'' of the CAF executive committee to challenge him.

Anouma, from Ivory Coast, was barred because his elected FIFA seat gave him only non-voting board membership.

CAS says its panel confirmed that the CAF board "had jurisdiction to refuse the candidature.''