His arrest comes amid accusations he misused funds after cancelling a sports equipment contract with Puma in favour of an inflated deal with French company Tactical Steel, for the same equipment.

Ahmad was in Paris for the FIFA Congress but now finds himself answering the allegations once more, having previously claimed the decisions had been made "collegially" in a "transparent" process.

In April, a report on website Inside World Football said they had seen documents detailing a sports equipment offer in December 2017 for the African Nations Championship from Puma for $351,617 (£276,606/€312,000) that had been dropped in favour of a $1,195,603 (£940,719/€1,060,891) deal for the same equipment to be bought via French company Tactical Steel.

Already embroiled in allegations, CAF President Ahmad had appeared to seal a cost-effective arrangement before he cancelled the contract with Puma and instead opted to select the Tactical Steel deal.

Reuters also revealed that the documents allegedly disclosed that the African chief had instructed CAF Secretary General Amr Fahmy to pay $20,000 (£15,737/€17,752) in bribes into accounts of African football association Presidents.

CAF’s compliance officer allegedly said the expenses would be covered personally but they were in fact covered by CAF, a direct violation of the Confederation's financial regulations and article 136 of its disciplinary code.

The code states: "Anyone who offers promises or grants an unjustified advantage to a body of CAF, a match official, a player or an official on behalf of himself or a third party in an attempt to incite it or him to violate CAF Regulations will be sanctioned.” 

Those sanctions range from a $25,000 (£19,673/€22,174) fine to a life ban.

FIFA has released a statement saying it is unaware of the details surrounding the investigation and would not comment on the specific case.

Football's world governing body, however, reiterated its stance towards eradicating wrongdoing at any level of football.

FIFA has contacted the French authorities to request information that could be relevant to investigations taking place within its Ethics Committee.

In February, former President of the Liberian Football Association, Musa Bility, resigned from senior roles at CAF in protest at how Ahmad was leading the governing body.

In a strongly-worded letter, sent to Ahmad and the CAF executive committee, Bility claimed the President was "leading this noble organisation in the wrong direction".

Bility was blocked from standing for the FIFA leadership in 2016 after failing an integrity check.