FIFA has given the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) until January 3 to reinstate the suspended Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) board led by Felton Kamambo or risk punitive sanctions that will likely lead to expulsion.
In an electronic mail written to suspended ZIFA General Secretary Joseph Mamutse by the FIFA Chief Member Association Officer, Kenny Jean-Marie and copied to the Confederation of African Football today, said only FIFA have the jurisdiction to suspend a member association.
“Furthermore, we would like to highlight that FIFA and the SRC exchanged on a couple of occasions by phone and videoconference call in order (i) for the former to fully grasp the background facts and consequences of the suspension imposed by the latter on the ZIFA executive committee; and (ii) to work together towards a swift and positive outcome to the presented situation,” said Jean-Marie.
“Accordingly, it was agreed with the SRC during the aforementioned discussions that a draft roadmap for 2022 would be shared with ZIFA for implementation, including the resolution of the most urgent issues mentioned above, with close monitoring by FIFA. As a matter of fact, on December 14 2021, a Zoom meeting was to take place with the ZIFA President and the SRC chairperson (Gerald Mlotshwa) in order to finalise the relevant roadmap. In return, the SRC was to lift the suspension on ZIFA executive committee.
“Eventually, we took note that the SRC chairperson declined to participate in the relevant final meeting and stated that the draft roadmap presented by FIFA was inadequate as it could allegedly not be implemented in practice by the ZIFA executive committee members who shall remain suspended. Instead, on December 17 2021, the SRC informed FIFA that it had appointed a ‘restructuring committee’ composed of nine members, which tenure would end by no later than December 31 2022.”
The hotheaded lawyer, Mlotshwa seems to be holding on to personal vendettas at the expense of professionalism and his hatred towards Kamambo is shocking. Kamambo and his board were suspended over frivolous gross incompetence charges. These include the alleged mismanagement and lack of accountability by ZIFA in its use of public funds, decisions of ZIFA on national teams travels in the absence of the SRC’s Covid-19 clearances, report of sexual harassment of female referees by some ZIFA technical staff which SRC say apparently was not dealt with by the relevant ZIFA bodies.
“As a whole, we would like to stress that we are seriously concerned about the state of relationship between ZIFA and the SRC for the past couple of years. As mentioned in our correspondence of August 29 2019, FIFA encourages close cooperative relations between its member associations and the respective national governmental authorities,” added Jean-Marie.
“FIFA also expects from its member associations to be fully accountable for and, if required, to submit to the said authorities all relevant information regarding the use of public funds, as per the relevant national legislation. FIFA additionally supports regular reporting by its member associations to the said governmental authorities and the appropriate guidance from the latter. Furthermore, FIFA has a zero-tolerance policy to any form of corruption and sexual abuses of any sort in football.
“This being said, we must take this opportunity to remind all parties about the contents of art. 14 par. 1 let. 1) and of art. 19 par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes, which stipulate that all FIFA member associations – including ZIFA – are obliged to manage their affairs independently and without undue influence from third parties. Any failure to these obligations may lead to sanctions provided for in the FIFA Statutes, even if the third-party influence was not the fault of the member association concerned (cf. art. 14 par. 3 of the FIFA Statutes).”
Jean-Marie urged SRC to reconsider their decision based on emotions and reinstate the ZIFA board so that the Warriors Africa Cup of Nations appearance in Cameroon in a few weeks is not prejudiced.
“In this context, we consider that the aforementioned decisions by the SRC to suspend all members of the ZIFA executive committee based on mere allegations without proof of a final and binding ruling, and subsequently to appoint a ‘restructuring committee’ in lieu of the ZIFA executive committee would appear to be clearly contrary to the above statutory principles,” said Jean-Marie.
“As a consequence, should such decisions be considered by FIFA to constitute undue third-party interference in the internal affairs of ZIFA, the appropriate sanctions may have to be imposed on ZIFA by the competent FIFA body. In such a case, all of Zimbabwean football would suffer the consequences, especially on the eve of the AFCON 2021. In addition, we would like to highlight that it is up to FIFA alone-on the basis of serious and well-founded information as well as under exceptional circumstances- to remove executive bodies of member associations and appoint normalisation committees (cf. art. 8 par. 2 of FIFA Statutes).
This being said, we must take this opportunity to remind all parties about the contents of art. 14 par. 1 let. I) and of art. 19 par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes, which stipulate that all FIFA member associations – including ZIFA – are obliged to manage their affairs independently and without undue influence from third parties. Any failure to these obligations may lead to sanctions provided for in the FIFA Statutes, even if the third-party. The influence was not the fault of the member association concerned (cf. art. 14 par. 3 of the FIFA Statutes).”
