adminnow be drawn on May 24.
The world football governing body only deals with national associations but have now taken the initiative to deal directly with individuals, in a move that should send a huge message, to bring this case to a close.
The Herald can reveal that Fifa officials, who are dealing with the case, were in Qatar last week where they met their former security chief, Chris Eaton, and specifically discussed the Asiagate case.
Fifa have written personal letters to each of the individuals and, in an unprecedented move, they are all free to respond directly to the world football governing body.
The Zurich organisation said it was only sending the letters through Zifa because they did not have contacts for the 16 individuals.
Below is the full letter from Fifa Legal chief Octavian Bivolaru:
“Dear Mr Mashingadze,
“Please find attached 16 letters addressed to the following officials and players regarding the above-mentioned matter: Ms Henrietta Rushwaya, Mr Jonathan Musavengana, Mr Kudzai Shabba, Mr Thompson Matenda, Mr Godfrey Japajapa, Mr Rodwell Dhlakama, Mr Emmanuel Nyahuma, Mr Edmore Sibanda, Mr Danisa Phiri, Mr Guthrie Zhokinyu, Mr Hope Chizuzu, Mr Bekithemba Ndlovu, Mr Zenzo Moyo, Mr Clayton Munemo, Mr Solomon Mugavazi and Mr Mathemba Ndlovu.
‘Due to the urgency and importance of the matter, and in the absence of the contact details of the aforementioned officials/players and of a working fax number of your association, we are hereby sending you the letters by e-mail and ask you to confirm receipt by return of the 16 PDF documents (3 pages each).
“The letters have also been sent by DHL to your association. Moreover, we kindly ask you to transmit all the letters immediately to the respective persons and to instruct them to provide us with their statements (if any) by 23 May 2013, either directly or via your association.
“Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 6 May 2013 by means of which you confirmed that the players Ocean Mushure and Augustine Mbara had paid the relevant fines in accordance with the respective decisions of ZIFA, and that the sanctions initially imposed on them (a three-year and a two-year ban, respectively) had consequently been suspended.
“In this regard, we would like to point out that, from the documents provided to us so far by your association, it appears that a number of players were sanctioned with bans on all football-related activities suspended on condition of payment of different fines by a certain deadline.
Therefore, we would like to refer to our letter dated 29 April 2013 and to kindly ask you again to inform us by return whether any such type of sanction imposed on a player by your association, with the exception of the players Mushure and Mbara above, was suspended following the payment of the relevant fine by the respective player, in the cases which foresaw that possibility.
We thank you for taking note of the above and for replying accordingly.
Best regards,
Octavian Bivolaru
Legal Counsel/Disciplinary & Governance Legal Affairs Division”
Mashingaidze, on Sunday wrote to Bivolaru advising him that he had, indeed, forwarded the letters to all the 16 players and officials, when a good number of them had not yet received such communication.
Although the letters were personal to the 16 players and officials, they were leaked to the media on Saturday and virtually all of them read about the issue in the newspapers.
The 16 officials and players have to advise Fifa how they came to be served with their sanctions, if they were properly cited, were given a chance to appear before a disciplinary committee to defend themselves and also quiz witnesses and the decision was properly communicated to them.
There has been a flurry of correspondence between Zifa and Fifa of late, as the world football governing body starts to draw the curtain on this case, and interestingly, in one of the letters, Fifa said they only knew of coach Luke Masomere’s ban after he had won his appeal.
Fifa had to request a full transcript of Masomere’s case from the time that he was implicated and whether the process satisfied the disciplinary code of the world football governing body.
Online Reporter