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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
FIFA have described the Zifa extra-ordinary meeting on Saturday that booted out president Cuthbert Dube as null and void. The international football mother body immediately directed that an extraordinary general meeting be held by June 16 amid fears that the world football motherbody was now playing politics ahead of the milestone May 29 Fifa presidential elections.
Fifa said the meeting, that also claimed the scalps of board members Tawengwa Hara and Fungai Chihuri breached the Zifa constitution.
“Therefore the conditions set in the Zifa constitution have not been met and the alleged extraordinary congress of 17 May 2015 is thus considered null and void. Pursuant to art. 17 par. 3 of the Fifa Statutes, any member’s bodies that have been elected or appointed by the Member shall not be recognised by Fifa. Furthermore art. 17 par. 4 of the Fifa Statutes underlines that decisions passed by bodies that have not been elected or appointed by the Member Association shall not be recognised by Fifa.
“However, and given the fact that the Zifa executive committee has to convene an extraordinary general assembly within three months if one third of its members makes the request, Fifa recommend that Zifa hold the extraordinary congress by 16 June 2015 at the latest in order to comply with the Zifa constitution,” said a Fifa spokesperson Giovanni Marti in an emailed response to questions from Chronicle Sport yesterday.
However, some councillors yesterday said Fifa were politicking as they feared a lost vote if Dube does not attend the 65th congress and consequently the elections in Zurich.
Dube has already made public his intention of voting for Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
“It’s very clear because even if the EGM is held on June 16, we’re still going to boot Dube out, make no mistake about that but Blatter would have secured his vote and by then Dube wouldn’t be useful anymore to him. The constitution clearly states that the EGM must be held within 90 days not on day number 90 and so why is Fifa setting a date for us,” a councillor noted on condition of anonymity.
The plot by Fifa is also based on the recent visit to a football symposium in Jordan by Zifa vice-president Omega Sibanda and board members Chihuri and Miriam Sibanda as well as Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Andrew Langa.
The Soccerex was hosted by the Jordanian Football Association which is led by His Royal Highness Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein who is also the vice-president of Fifa. Hussein is challenging Blatter for the Fifa presidency and was recently in the country where he met Vice-President Emmerson Mnangangwa.
“Automatically, Sibanda would have gone to the Fifa congress but the visit to Jordan has made the powers that be in Fifa a bit uneasy. Naturally, they would no longer be certain of the Zimbabwean vote hence their strange push to have the EGM after the elective congress,” the councillor added.
Marti said Fifa have taken note of the events which led to the current situation in Zifa and said the mandatory three months had not elapsed.
“According to Article 28 of the (Zifa) Constitution, the executive committee of Zifa has to convene an extraordinary congress within three months if one third of the members asks for it. Since the request was made on 16 March 2015, the three-month time lapse has not been completed yet, the deadline being 16 June 2015. In addition, the extraordinary congress should have been convened by the secretary-general and chaired by the president which was not the case,” said Fifa. It emerged though last night that Fifa were responding to a letter sent by the Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze which left out vital events leading to the councillors invoking their constitutional right to call for the EGM on their own.
On March 16, 2015 councillors petitioned Zifa calling for an urgent extraordinary meeting in terms of Article 28 of the Zifa constitution. The agenda was; i) 2018 World Cup ban by Fifa, ii) An ageing analysis of the Zifa creditors, iii) Way forward.
On March 27, 2015 Mashingaidze wrote back to the councillors and advised them the items raised on the agenda would be discussed at the annual general meeting set for April 25, 2015 under the Zifa president’s activity report. This in essence was refusal to call for the EGM by the general secretary as dictated by the constitution.
The councillors agreed to that but five days before the AGM, on 20 April, the Zifa CEO wrote to the councillors again and advised them that the AGM had been postponed to June 27, 2015 due to what he said were financial constraints and went on to list eight obligations that Zifa was besieged with in terms of trying to pay out.
With the postponement of the AGM, the councillors’ request for an EGM would have been held on the 103th day instead of within 90 days and that forced the councillors to court Zifa and advised that in terms of the Zifa constitution, they (Zifa) were mandated to call for an EGM within 90 days if a third of the assembly members (councillors) requested such a meeting.
“In view of your notice to postpone the AGM to 27 June 2015, we the undersigned feel that you’re violating the constitution which you must protect. The same constitution allows the undersigned members to proceed with the requested meeting if no joy is received from you and your board. We now advise that the EGM as requested on 16 March 2015 shall be held on 16 May 2015 in terms of the Zifa constitution, Article 28,” wrote the councillors.
Chronicle Sport has all the correspondence between the councilors and Zifa.
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