Nhlanhla Ndlovu, FOOTBALL WRITER
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has dropped a bombshell barely 48 hours ahead of the planned Zimbabwe Football Association Extra Ordinary Meeting scheduled for Harare this Saturday.
ezemidlalo.net can reveal that in an email addressed to suspended ZIFA board president, Felton Kamambo and general-secretary, Joseph Mamutse, FIFA official Sarah Solémalé advised ZIFA members and delegates to adhere to the global football body’s decision to insists on the reinstatement of the suspended board ahead of the EGM.
ZIFA councillors, with the blessing of the SRC, are expected to convene the meeting to revoke the mandate of the Kamambo-led board. The ZIFA board was suspended by the SRC in November last year over allegations of incompetence, corruption and sexual harassment.
Zimbabwe was consequently suspended by FIFA over government interference. The world soccer governing body said ZIFA would only be reinstated after the suspended executive committee members regain control of the game in the country.
In her letter dated Thursday, 21 April, 2022, Solémalé who is the FIFA Senior Manager for Member Associations said:
“As discussed in the past weeks, it is important that in the context of the aforementioned EGM, the ZIFA members abs delegates understand fully the decision of FIFA Council taken on February 2022 (as attached hereto).
Especially, they shall be reminded of the cumulative conditions imposed by FIFA Council in order for the ZIFA suspension to be lifted, including ‘confirmation to FIFA that ZIFA and its management led by President Kamambo and GS Mamutse is back under their full unconditional control’.
We trust this is of help and wish you a nice day.
Best regards,
Sarah Solémalé
Senior Manager – Member Associations
This letter from FIFA appears to a damper on the Gerald Mlotshwa-led SRC’s efforts to validate the suspension of Kamambo’s board through the EGM. At face value, FIFA’s letter also appears to deny the agent provocateurs within the ZIFA council any legitimacy ahead of the EGM.
However, as has been the norm by the SRC and ZIFA members advocating for the removal of the Kamambo board, this letter is likely to be ignored.
Before Zimbabwe was suspended by FIFA, the SRC wilfully failed to honour commitments of several tripartite videoconferencing calls arranged by the world football governing body to deal with the dispute including one in December.
Evidence shows that Fifa, again through its senior manager — member associations and governance Sarah Solémalé, last week wrote an email to Mlotshwa and suspended Kamambo, inviting them to a Zoom meeting “to finalise exchanges.”
“As anticipated in our prior discussions held, respectively in the past three weeks with respect to the situation of Zifa, we would like to finalise our exchanges through a videoconference call to be held on 14 December 2021 at 08:00 Zurich time/ 09:00 Harare time,” Solemale wrote on December 8.
“A Zoom invitation will be sent to you separately. Documentation to support our final exchanges will be provided by the end of this week for your perusal.”
At the time, the SRC supposedly did not attend the meeting in protest after they received communication from FIFA instructing them to reinstate Kamambo and his board, failure of which would attract sanctions including a ban from international football.
Meanwhile, the suspended ZIFA board members have reportedly ruled out attending the “illegal” ZIFA EGM.
The Zifa board reportedly said the EGM scheduled for tomorrow was illegal and that the suspended members would not attend.
“It (EGM) is illegal from all angles. The board members are suspended and their cases are before the courts how can they attend under these circumstances? It’s an illegal gathering. Even those delegates suspended by the Zifa board remain suspended because they were not sent by members of Zifa as per the dictates of the constitution, evidence is there,” the board insists.
As the SRC-ZIFA unfolded, the suspended board alleged that SRC chairperson Mlotshwa’s actions were “self-serving and did not consider the broader interests of football stakeholders”.
Mlotshwa continues to stand by the SRC’s decision to suspend the ZIFA boardsaying that the suspension of the board members would not be lifted and wants the restructuring committee to complete its mandate.
The restructuring committee has been given until the end of the year to come up with a new constitution and make consultations with stakeholders ahead of fresh ZIFA elections.
