Council of Southern Football Associations (COSAFA) president Philip Chiyangwa has lodged a complaint with FIFA over the lifetime ban imposed on him by Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).
In a letter addressed to FIFA general secretary Fatma Samora, Chiyangwa, who is former ZIFA president, challenges the legality of the ban imposed to him stating that the action violates the world football governing body statues.
“I write to draw the attention of your esteemed office to extremely disturbing developments emanating from the Zimbabwe Football Association, which is a duly admitted member of FIFA,” reads part of the letter.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “I have found it compelling to directly address your esteemed office in light of the gross violations of both FIFA statutes and ZIFA constitution being willfully perpetrated by the current ZIFA officials who have unconstitutionally constituted themselves as a management committee.” [/perfectpullquote]
“While on the surface the malicious actions of this illegal committee may appear as personal attacks on me, it is clear that the totality of the actions emanating from them are fast-tracking Zimbabwean football into the dark days of maladministration, financial embezzlements, constitutional violations and other undesirable elements.”
“You will note that the letter (on the life ban) does not at all mention the specific body of ZIFA that is alleged to have arrived at such a decision.”
“The bodies of ZIFA are outlined in Article 19 of the ZIFA constitution. You will note that the letter does not at all state that the purported decision to ban me was arrived at in accordance with due process.”
“There is no mention at all of the involvement of any judicial body in the alleged ban. At law, the letter is null and void as it communicates a nullity.’’
In his argument, Chiyangwa added that ZIFA never called him to present himself to any of the association’s judicial body.
ZIFA issued a ban on Chiyangwa earlier last week where it indicated that the decision was made “due to his contribution” in bringing Zimbabwean football into disrepute through the 2019 COSAFA Cup bid debacle.
The southern Africa country’s football body further accuses the former football boss of unilaterally submitting an incomplete bid document without getting the government guarantee and ZIFA Board resolution which ended up attracting a ban from COSAFA.
Chiyangwa, a prominent businessman in Harare, was defeated by the current chair Felton Kamambo in the last year’s ZIFA elections.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Sports and Recreation Commission has written to FIFA asking for the removal of the entire Felton Kamambo lead ZIFA board and in place appoint a Normalisation Committee to lead football in the county.
Ducor Sports understands that SRC are keen to take action if they do not receive backing from FIFA.
ZIFA has been under fire since the Warriors AFCON 2019 campaign that was marred by controversy The association has also been accused of poor preparations for the Women teams during and after the 2019 edition of the Women´s COSAFA Cup.
