FIFA is dispatching a representative to Zambia to seek an audience with the Zambian football stakeholders and in my opinion, there couldn’t have been a better time to do this.
Had the FAZ Board member elections gone ahead without this Fifa intervention when the sentiments in the country were totally broken and boiling surely we could have been in a much worse scenario?
In my opinion, this is the perfect time to kind of put things to bed.
There had been heavy talk that we might be banned by Fifa. But all that appeared for all us speaking from an uninformed position. The bottom line is all of us did not have concrete evidence to support that. Due to polarization in the game, we all chose to be biased in our opinions.
The letter from Fifa in its preamble paragraph “I refer to our telephone call last week regarding the electoral process of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ). Fifa is committed to an electoral process that respects its own statutes, the FAZ statues, and the FAZ electoral code”
Let’s not get carried away good people, the whole paragraph sums up contention but it is still ambiguous in its interpretation. It’s not even clear in its statement who called who in the first place. We can all go to legal schools and ask for the interpretation, and truth of the matter is it will come he said he said situation. Deadlock!
There are quite some sumptuous subplots in this letter. I spoke about the ban, which has not happened.
Secondly, this letter available to all of us is written to the Minister directly. I am tempted to stir waters here by accusing Fifa of inviting the government to interference since they are the ones writing to indulge government. But that’s for another day.
Fifa has spoken about respecting statutes of its member association and its own. And stops there! It’s another contentious point that again is subject to heavy debates.
One interesting question that boggles the mind, is why should Fifa seek an audience with the Sports Minister per se government if the government has been interfering with FAZ matters? It would be nice to interrogate that thought.
Why did I raise the point of the importance of the meeting before the FAZ board elections? It’s at this point and we can’t dodge the brutal bullet that a FAZ board elected team that is at loggerheads with the government is as good as dead. Yes FAZ may have the capability and capacity to run its affairs without government. But let’s not lie to one another, FAZ needs government ear and support to succeed as an when they need it.
FAZ without government support, can’t get the police to provide security in all its matches, both international and local. FAZ needs government support not necessarily materials but logistical should they embark on external tours. Fifa knows that. Otherwise, they will not even renew the registration of FAZ in the absence of government backing and support.
And therefore, my thinking, Fifa wants to appraise the Minister and government respectfully at that level. If they didn’t want to do so, FIFA would have not bothered to send an envoy to Zambia.
We need to appreciate also that FAZ officials have summoned to courts in the recent past. Not very good for football in its entirety. I am opinionated again that these are some of the things the Fifa envoy might want to impress upon the minister and hopefully, the minister can relate to cabinet and colleague ministries might be impressed upon to help out.
The meetings indulge the FAZ team, Ministry officials and stakeholders. It’s this indaba that private interested individuals may have issues needed to follow up and put together representation through proxies to interact with the Fifa man.
My sincere, hope and wish is that football should be the winner in the final analysis.
Anyway let me wait for this meeting
