Fernando Tavares Declares Himself Guinea-Bissau FA President

Fernando Tavares on Saturday declared himself as the Guinea-Bissau FA president and took the oath of office at a ceremony held at the port of Alto Bandim in Bissau.

Tavares was “elected” as the new FFGB boss at a parallel elective congress that was attended by over 25 club presidents, despite the federation’s electoral commission warning that it amounted to “treason”.

The federation, through the help of authorities, blocked live coverage of the event.

Neither the outgoing FA boss Manuel de Nascimento Lopes nor members of the FFGB electoral commission attended the “congress” that elected Tavares.

Elections were supposed to be held on July 25 but were postponed for the first time to 8 August after the electoral commission stopped the exercise due to “non-compliance of Covid-19 regulations”.

On Tuesday, however, FFGB released a statement saying the elective congress had been postponed again to 7 November after world governing body FIFA wrote to the federation advising on the delay due to constitutional abnormalities.

Five candidates contesting the seat had petitioned FIFA arguing that the electoral code had been violated with regard to the screening of both candidates and Electoral Committee members.

In a protest letter seen by Ducor Sports, the candidates stated that the Electoral Committee had been divided into two separate groups where one advocated for suspended FFGB boss Manuel Nascimento Lopes to stand for re-election.

Nascimento was sanctioned for violating article 23  of the FIFA Code of Ethics. This, in relation to his involvement and participation in a mob justice incident against a man in Guinea Bissau.