Zambia’s women’s football team faces being unable to participate in this summer’s Olympics due to an ongoing political crisis within the country’s football association.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, has said the Football Federation of Zambia (FAZ) faces suspension – and therefore Zambian teams prevented from participating in international tournaments – following “undue third-party influence” in within the FAZ.
The High Court of Zambia has issued an injunction preventing the FAZ Annual General Meeting (AGM) from going ahead as planned on Saturday, after the FAZ president and general secretary were arrested and charged with money laundering offences. money last week.
FIFA sent the FAZ a letter — posted on the official FAZ social media account and dated Friday, April 26 — following the injunction ordered by the High Court, stating that failure to hold the AGM “clearly appears to amount to undue influence on the part of third parties.” .
FIFA laws prohibit third-party influence in the operation of a member association and it has already suspended countries where governments or courts have been tried for interference, such as India in August 2022. The letter adds that the canceled AGM could lead to the suspension of the FAZ. , meaning its teams will not be able to compete with other FIFA member nations.
The FIFA letter, sent by head of member associations Kenny Jean-Marie, also “took note with great concern” of the accusations made against the president and general secretary of the FAZ. The letter requested that the FAZ provide FIFA with additional documents and information relating to the case by Tuesday.
FAZ president Andrew Kamanga, general secretary Reuben Kamanga and two others — Madalitso Kamanga and Jairous Siame — were arrested and charged with money laundering offenses including obtaining money by false pretenses and of conspiracy to defraud, according to a press release from the Zambia Drug Enforcement Commission. DEC) from Tuesday April 23.
The DEC said the alleged offenses were linked to the quartet obtaining government funds to enable the two non-FAZ men to travel to Ivory Coast for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) earlier This year. The investigation found that around £10,200 was obtained for “compensation” and a further £3,000 for return flights.
The DEC added that the quartet “are expected to appear in court soon.” All four have denied the accusations, according to local media.
Following the arrests and charges, an injunction was filed in the High Court of Zambia to prevent the FAZ AGM from taking place as planned on Saturday, April 27.
FAZ appeared at an injunction hearing in the High Court on Saturday morning seeking to have the injunction set aside, but was ultimately unsuccessful as the AGM did not take place. According to a FAZ press release, Judge Malumani dismissed the FAZ case and set a date of Thursday, May 2 for a new hearing.
Zambia’s women’s team qualified for this summer’s Olympics after beating Morocco 3-2 on aggregate in the play-offs earlier this month. They were placed in Group B with the USWNT, Germany and Australia. Zambia had already won a group match at the 2023 World Cup and exited the tournament in the group stage.
The FAZ released a statement on Monday confirming that “a FIFA ban would mean non-participation in the Olympics for our Copper Queens, Chipolopolo (the senior men’s team) would not participate in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers , girls under 17 would lose the playoffs.” for the World Cup with the senior women’s national team banned from participating in WAFCON for which they have already qualified.
The FAZ added that it “hoped” that a resolution could be reached before FIFA intervened and that it “took it upon itself to fully comply with all possibilities that could ensure that Zambia avoids a possible FIFA ban.
FIFA and FAZ did not respond Athleticismrequest for comment.
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