ZIMBABWE Warriors flew out into Cameroon for the Africa Cup of Nations finals under a cloud of uncertainty as the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) shows no signs of giving in to FIFA’s ultimate.
The Zimbabwe sports governing body faces government interference charges, leading to expulsion and effectively affecting the Warriors participation at Afcon.
This follows the suspension of the ZIFA board led by Felton Kamambo, which FIFA did not take lightly.
In his December 21 letter to suspend ZIFA General-Secretary, Joseph Mamutse, FIFA Chief Member Association Officer Kenny Jean-Marie, reported that SRC Gerald Mlotshwa absconded from a critical meeting aimed at mitigating the football crisis at home.
“Furthermore, we would like to highlight that FIFA and the SRC exchanged on a couple of occasions by phone and videoconference call in order (1) 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. Accordingly, it was agreed with the SRC during the previous 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. On December 14 2021, a Zoom meeting was to take place with the ZIFA President and the SRC chairperson to finalise the relevant roadmap. In return, the SRC was to lift the suspension on ZIFA executive committee,” wrote Jean-Marie.
“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 9 members, which tenure would end by no later than December 31 2022.
As a whole, we would like to stress that we have been seriously concerned about the state of the 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. 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 as well as sexual abuses of any sort in football.”
Jean-Marie, however, reminded the two parties that they risk the FIFA ban should the stalemate remain unchanged by January 3.
“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 stipulates 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),” he said.
“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. 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).
“Therefore, we kindly ask you to inform the SRC that in the event its decisions to suspend the ZIFA executive committee members and to appoint a “restructuring committee” instead are not reversed before January 3, 2022, at the latest, we would have no other choice but to submit the present matter to the Bureau of FIFA Council for consideration and decision.”
Meanwhile, Warriors head coach Norman Mapeza wore a brave face before boarding the flight to Cameroon after announcing his 23-man squad today.
He did not mince his words as he rescinded fate after being forced to choose from a depleted pool of players after many pulled out due to injuries and personal commitments.
“This is what we have, and we have to deal with what we have,” Mapeza said.
“I hope that the selected players will go there and do the nation proud.”
