Zambia Women could miss out on Olympics after Fifa threatens suspension

The Zambian women’s football team faces a possible ban from the Olympics due to turmoil within the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ).

Here’s the breakdown of the reasons:

Accusations against FAZ leadership: The FAZ president, Andrew Kamanga, was arrested on charges of financial crimes like obtaining money by false pretenses. These pertain to the use of money for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cote D’Ivoire. The general secretary, Reuben Kamanga, along with Madalitso Kamanga and Jairous Siame, who travelled to the tournament as part of FAZ’s support staff were also charged. This raises concerns about the association’s financial management.
Undue influence: FIFA, the governing body of world football, is unhappy with a Zambian high court injunction that prevented the FAZ from holding its annual general meeting (AGM). FIFA sees this as outside interference in the association’s affairs.

These issues violate FIFA’s statutes which forbid government or third-party influence on national football associations. If FAZ doesn’t resolve these concerns,

FIFA could suspend Zambia, which would mean the national teams, including the women’s team, would be barred from international competitions like the Olympics.

Fifa’s member associations officer, Kenny Jean-Marie, has already written a letter to FAZ, expressing an interest in developments.

The letter cites ‘ Article 19 paragraph 1 of the Fifa Statutes and Article 7 paragraph 1.g. of the CAF Statutes’ and warns that ‘the infringement of the aforementioned provisions of the FIFA and CAF Statutes may give rise to grounds for the suspension of FAZ irrespective of whether the infringement was attributed to FAZ or not.”

Reuben Kamanga has called for ‘calm’.