adminMr Gianni Infantino
PRESIDENT
FIFA
Strasse 20
P.O Box 8944
Zurich,
Switzerland
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
WELCOME to Africa Mr president!
This is our home, our continent which, just three months ago, celebrated a historic chapter in our romance with football.
One of our representatives, Morocco, finally found a way to break the quarter-final barrier, at the FIFA World Cup, for us, as the Atlas Lions reached the semi-finals in Qatar in December last year.
It was as symbolic as it was powerful with the first World Cup, to be held in the Gulf, providing an arena for the first such tournament to feature an African team in the semi-finals.
We all celebrated that massive achievement because, on this continent Mr President, football binds us into one united family.
Here in Africa, which will be your home throughout the week, football is more than just a game.
It is a way of life for us and it doesn’t matter that, on most occasions, our teams don’t succeed and it’s a game which attracts the worst possible administrators.
But, I’m not writing this to teach you about African history, when it comes to football. This is just to remind you that, ONE YEAR after we were suspended from FIFA’s international family, we remain on the sidelines.
We were not the only ones suspended on that day in Doha, Qatar, in March last year but we are the only ones still in the wilderness.
Pakistan’s suspension was lifted in June last year, just three months later, even though the Asian nation still doesn’t have an elected football leadership.
Kenya’s suspension was lifted recently and the Harambee Stars, the team we beat to win our first international tournament in 1984, are now back in the international fold.
Of course, we have seen the misplaced frenzy that we are set to be ‘‘expelled’’ even though the same people, who are suggesting that, seem to have forgotten that the agenda, for last year’s Congress, also carried the same item and wording.
We are happy that, as late as December last year, you still rightly considered us as part of the 211 members of FIFA, despite our suspension.
“It’s 211 football teams, and their fans, who want to come and enjoy football and that’s what we’re here for,” you told the media during the World Cup.
“We have to give all these people a moment in their lives to forget their own problems and enjoy football.”
That’s the point Mr president.
The need for our fans, and players, to be given a “moment in their lives to forget their own problems and enjoy football.”
When you were here in February 2017, for Philip Chiyangwa’s birthday party, you told us that we could bank on you as a friend of our football.
This is what we are doing right now Mr president, on behalf of the millions of Zimbabwean football fans, and the thousands of our players, for you to consider their plight given they are the ones who have borne the brunt of this suspension.
One of the best five central midfielders in French Ligue 1 today, Mr President, is a Zimbabwean, Marshall Munetsi, and he wants to fight for his country the same way he is fighting for his club Stade Reims.
That’s what Jordan Zemura is also crying for, what Tino Kadewere wants and what Teenage Hadebe badly wants.
The administrators can take their time to try and resolve their boardroom challenges but, our plea Mr President, is for you to consider our fans and our players.
They have suffered for a long time for the sins of their leaders and we believe, now that you are in Africa, you can consider their plight and give them a chance.
Yours in football
ROBSON SHARUKO
Editor
Online Reporter