FIFA has lifted the ban on Zimbabwean football.
FIFA has lifted its 18-month suspension of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) just days before the draw for the African qualification competition for the 2026 World Cup, officials confirmed on Monday.
An interim normalisation committee has been appointed to run the affairs of ZIFA until elections for a new management team are held.
Zimbabwe was suspended by the global governing body in February 2022 following perceived government interference in the running of the troubled football association.
The executive committee of ZIFA was ordered dissolved in November 2021 by the country’s Sports and Recreation Commission, a government-appointed body, amid allegations that money given to the association by the state for Zimbabwe’s participation at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals was misappropriated.
FIFA said on June 20, 2023, it received communication from the SRC chaired by Gerald Mlotshwa that it had rescinded the suspension of the ZIFA board and also withdrawn as a complainant in a criminal matter against Kamambo and other executives.
FIFA, in a letter to ZIFA, however noted that the Kamambo executive’s four-year term ended in December 2022 and “from a legal point of view it is no longer possible for Kamambo, his fellow board members and general secretary Joseph Mamutse to resume their positions of leadership at ZIFA.”
The duties of the committee will include running ZIFA’s daily affairs, restructuring the ZIFA administration, reviewing ZIFA statutes and electoral code to ensure compliance with FIFA statutes and to act as an electoral committee in order to organise and conduct new ZIFA board elections and ensure proper financial handover.
FIFA also tasked the committee to collaborate with the sports ministry and the SRC to investigate sexual harassment allegations against some former ZIFA executives.
The committee’s mandate will expire when it has fulfilled the duties assigned, but by June 30, 2024, at the latest.
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