Zimbabwe Softens Stance on FIFA Guidelines As Amina Mohamed Continues To Play Hard Ball

• Zimbabwe has taken the first step toward getting its FIFA ban lifted after the Sports and Recreation Committee decided to reinstate embattled members of the Football Association
• FIFA requires that the duly elected officials of its member association be in office as they set up a normalization committee to streamline issues
• Kenya, which was also suspended at the same time as Zimbabwe, is set to make any steps towards finding a middle ground with FIFA

The Ministry of Sports and Recreation in Zimbabwe has appeared to relax its tough stance on FIFA. The country has been banned by the world governing body for football FIFA and has subsequently been omitted from the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

FIFA chose to ban Zimbabwe and Kenya due to government interference. The Zimbabwean government had earlier refused to reinstate the ousted officials of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).

FIFA guidelines stipulate that the central government should not interfere with the running of their member associations. And should such an occurrence happen, the officials need to be in office as FIFA in conjunction with the government, set up a normalization committee until everything is sorted out.

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This has appeared to change with a memo released by the SRC which is the regulating authority, saying that the commission lifted the suspension of the members of ZIFA. The board members who had their suspensions lifted include Barbara Chikosi, Farai Jere and Sugar Chagonda.

The commission also approved the promotion of ZIFA’s vice-president Gift Banda to be the interim president of the Association. The promotion had been agreed on by the ZIFA General Assembly in April.

The Herald reports that ZIFA chairman Felix Kamambo was ejected from office last year due to a myriad of challenges that included embezzlement and sexual harassment.

The country’s football is still being run by a Restructuring Committee but the confirmation and reinstatement of Banda is a step toward meeting FIFA’s guidelines. The memo also indicated that FIFA had been CAF had been notified of the developments.

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Kenya, meanwhile is still ready to comply with any of FIFA’s directives. Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed appointed a caretaker committee which was replaced by the transition committee. None of these teams are approved by FIFA.

Ferdinand Omanyala beats Akani Simbine using the photo-finish rule

Sports Brief has also reported how Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala finally bagged his dream of becoming an African champion.

Omanyala beat the outgoing champion Akani Simbine from South Africa in the ongoing Africa Senior Athletics Championships in Mauritius. It was a close call with Omanyala edging Simbine in what is called a photo-finish.

The home hero crossed the line with 9.927 seconds to beat SImbine’s 9.930 in one of the closest races in history.