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Petros Kausiyo Sunday Mail Sports Editor

JOY and relief are expected to grip Zimbabwe’s football fraternity today after FIFA finally resolved to lift their suspension of the country from the international game yesterday.

An official announcement was made last night by FIFA. Tge Sports and Recreation Commission are set to hold amedia conference in Harare this morning, with a Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of ZIFA also set to be unveiled.

The Herald can reveal that FIFA yesterday ended several months of speculation by agreeing to re-admit Zimbabwe into the global football family.

Zimbabwe had since February 24, 2022, been frozen out of the international game after FIFA suspended the country along with Kenya, with the world controlling body citing third party (government) interference with the operations of the national football associations in both nations, for the suspensions.

Kenya’s suspension was then lifted on November 25, 2022.

Yesterday it was the turn of Zimbabwe to have their isolation removed and FIFA wrote to the domestic football authorities of their decision in a letter addressed to ZIFA.

“Notwithstanding the above, the bureau observed that the mandate of the ZIFA Board had come to an end in December 2022 insofar as the last elections of the ZIFA board had taken place in December 2018 for a four-year term”.

“Also, Mr Mamutse had apparently not resumed his position of general secretary, thus leading to sanctions which were currently subject to an employment-related dispute at national level. In this context, from a legal standpoint, it is no longer possible for Mr Kamambo, his fellow board members and Mr Mamutse (i) to resume their positions of leadership at ZIFA, and (ii) to confirm that ZIFA is under their full and unconditional control.”

“In particular, the difficulties in finding a consensus with the SRC in terms of its compliance with the decision of the FIFA Council has led to an extensive duration of the suspension imposed on ZIFA (i.e. approximately one and a half years). This has certainly contributed towards creating a political vacuum in the ZIFA leadership to date.” Additionally, the obvious need for stability towards the football community and the SRC as well as the need for reforms were also raised as topics during the FIFA-CAF mission in Harare. There might be a momentum to address several sensitive topics that have been reported to FIFA and the SRC, such as sexual harassment in Zimbabwean football.”

“Under these circumstances, the Bureau of the Council decided on 10 July 2023 to lift the suspension on ZIFA with immediate effect and to appoint immediately a normalisation committee for ZIFA, pursuant to article 8 paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes. Its duties shall encompass the following:

• To run the daily affairs of ZIFA
• To restructure the ZIFA administration
• To establish, with the help of FIFA, a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Sport/the SRC and ZIFA, which will define the responsibilities and objectives of each party, including (but not exclusively) on the topic of sexual harassment
• To review the ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements, and to ensure their adoption by the ZIFA Congress
• To act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct elections of a new ZIFA Board based on the newly aligned ZIFA Statutes and Electoral Code.
• To ensure a proper financial handover to the new ZIFA Board

The normalisation committee will consist of a suitable number of members, who will be appointed by FIFA and CAF. The composition of the normalisation committee will be disclosed separately. While the aforementioned persons will assume their duties with immediate effect, all members of the normalisation committee must pass an eligibility check

Unlike the Kenyan scenario, Zimbabwe’s situation was as complex as it was unprecedented and FIFA had to dig deep to try and find a solution to the matter.

Apart from a host of virtual meetings with a cross section of the domestic game’s stakeholders including the Sports Commission, Footballers Union of Zimbabwe, Premier Soccer League and some current and retired Warriors stars, FIFA also twice dispatched delegations to Harare for more consultative meetings as part of efforts to find a lasting solution on troubled ZIFA.

That as late as the weekend, ousted ZIFA president Felton Kamambo, General Secretary Joseph Mamutse and board members — Philemon Machana, Stanley Chapeta, and Bryton Malandule — were making a last ditch attempt to derail the lifting of the suspension, puts into perspective the complexity of the Zimbabwe situation.

The quintet also appealed against the manner in which the Sport and Recreation Commission annulled the suspension of their executive committee.

Kamambo had reportedly been pressing to have Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA lifted on his terms but to their credit the Sports Commission, who have exhibited maturity and honesty in their engagement with the international federation throughout, explained that the term of the ZIFA board had since expired in December last year.

Earlier last year the quartet of Kamambo, Machana, Chapeta and Malandule also had their mandates revoked via a ZIFA Congress extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of April 23, 2022.

The Sports Commission on June 29 then wrote to Kamambo and his colleagues on the board advising them of the local sport regulatory body’s move to rescind the suspension they had effected on the ZIFA executives on November 16, 2021.

In that letter the Sports Commission also added that while they had lifted the suspension on the ZIFA board, it was worthwhile noting that the rescission had been overtaken by events as Kamambo’s term had also expired in December 2022.

Machana, Malandule, Chapeta and Kamambo had also been recalled from the ZIFA executive at the April 2022, EGM.

The ZIFA EGM resolution, had in turn paved the way for Gift Banda, who had been suspended by his fellow board members, to be plucked from the forced exile and appointed acting association president.

Kamambo at the weekend, however, showed he was not going down without a fight if contents of the letter he wrote to the Confederation of African Football are anything to go by.

That communication Kamambo, also questioned legitimacy of the ZIFA Congress EGM resolution, while expressing strong reservations with the manner the Sports Commission had rescinded his board’s suspension.

He had also written to FIFA in a bid to thwart the lifting of the suspension.

The letter to CAF General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba, which was copied to FIFA and seen by The Herald, reads in part:

“Dear Mr Veron….

Condition 1:

Unconditional reinstatement of the entire ZIFA board, which was in place on 21 November 2021 — this has not been done. A letter given to us through email by SRC yesterday is a conditional reinstatement that claims that such was done in cognisance of an EGM by ZIFA, which was ruled unconstitutional by FIFA in 2022 before it even occurred.

Condition number 2:

Withdrawal of court case against suspended Board and GS (Joseph Mamutse) – there is presently no such. A letter given to us by SRC to the prosecution authority penned by SRC is simply saying SRC is no longer the complainant but doesn’t withdraw the same. It also lacks case number, which is a proper reference of a case. Hence, it could be for another non-related case. Further, it has wrong names and thus seem deliberate and smacks of bad motives. Finally, we went to court on 21 June 2023 after the letter was stamped by Prosecution on 19 June 2023 and SRC was there through their employee Mr Garikai (Sebastian) pushing for the matter to go ahead and the matter was subsequently remanded to 22 July 2023 and remains live and unwithdrawn.

Condition number 3:

Disbandment of the ZIFA restructuring committee — this was not done while SRC claims the committee is no longer there after it completed its mission, its products and findings have not been publicly withdrawn and therefore remains in force. We have not been notified of the same and that its results and recommendations will not be implemented.

Condition number 4:

Reinstatement of the GS – This was not done. The only letter that came had conditions that remained unshared to this day despite the request for same in writing. SRC claims the GS was subsequently dismissed by the other board and to this day are considering the GS fired. Even their letters to us yesterday omitted the GS but were copied to their own GS one Gwesela Xolisani.

Condition number 5:

That Felton Kamambo and J Mamutse as board president and GS respectively must write to FIFA confirming unconditional compliance to the four conditions and control of ZIFA assets by board. This has not been fulfilled, so we can’t write letters confirming that. Instead, we have written to FIFA to confirm that the conditions remain unfulfilled. The part for the control of assets is that we are not worried since we do not intend to go to ZIFA, and we put that in writing yesterday since we are aware FIFA was thinking of a Normalisation Committee.

“Finally, all we need is for these conditions to be fully met with hard evidence as opposed to lip-service through SRC conditional letters whose effect to the conditions are basically to perpetuate the status quo

“Fear if these conditions are not fully met, unconditional (sic) SRC has hidden motives to continue with persecution and victimisation of the five of us

Regards

Felton Kamambo.’’

It emerged that there had been strong belief by Kamambo and his colleagues that they would be granted another day in office, at least until the next ZIFA elections are held, as they were opposed to the installation of a Normalisation Committee.