Fifa’s deafening silence

15 Apr, 2018 - 00:04 0 Views
Fifa’s deafening silence

The Sunday Mail

FIFA’S deafening silence is providing the soundtrack to local football’s circus.

The ordinary fan has every right to feel let down by the world soccer governing body as the drama in and around the Zifa boardroom continues to overshadow the little that is happening on the field of play.

It’s has been “over a month now” since Zifa wrote to Zurich, where the Fifa headquarters are located, seeking counsel on how to navigate through a legal minefield.

Alive to the fact that local football was heading towards uncharted waters with the term of the Zifa board expiring with no election process in motion the Zifa Assembly in February resolved to seek Fifa’s guidance.

Fifa confirmed receiving the missive with a spokesman recently telling The Sunday Mail Sport that: “FIFA has received correspondence from ZIFA on the latter’s situation, which we are currently studying. We have no further comment to make at this stage.”

Tragically as Fifa take their sweet time to point at the way forward the local football scene is getting messier with each day as some sections push for the exit of Philip Chiyangwa and his fragmented board.

Forced into a corner, Chiyangwa has been fighting like the politician that he is and on Friday his board played the card they seem to always throw when faced with a threat – suspension.

Trevor Carelse-Juul, Eusebio Maseko, Rafiq Khan, Vincent Pamire, Leslie Gwindi, John Phiri and Fungai Chihuri have since been banned “from partaking in any association football-related activities in Zimbabwe for violating the ZIFA constitution”.

“The resolution was unanimously made by the ZIFA Executive Committee at its meeting on the 13th of April 2018, citing the above individuals’ gross violations of the ZIFA constitution and their establishment of parallel structures in an attempt to usurp power from constitutionally elected officials,” said Zifa general secretary Joseph Mamutse in a statement.

Speaking at a meeting held in the capital, 24 hours before he was slapped with the suspension, Juul denied that he was orchestrating a football coup.

“I would want to make it clear that we are not here to stage a coup of some sort or unlawful takeover of ZIFA, but rather we are here as the elders of Zimbabwe football consisting of former presidents as articulated in clause 18 of the constitution,” he said.

But Chiyangwa seems to have little regard for his rival, claiming that he is ready to engage with anyone with concerns over local football as long as they do not answer to the name Trevor Carelse-Juul.

“I went to election and beat him. He also lost to Cuthbert Dube, so you are talking of a loser here and I don’t see any reason for me to engage a perennial loser,” he charged.

“What does Trevor Juul know about football? He is a yesteryear administrator. I would rather talk to Cuthbert Dube and not Juul, who is perennial loser. Look at the numbers of the 2015 election, I beat Juul 40-13, he also lost to Cuthbert Dube in the previous election.”

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