By MICHAEL MIYOBA
FAZ vice president Rix Mweemba says the current FAZ executive committee will not leave office until the elective annual general meeting which will usher in a new executive is held.
Mweemba, speaking in an interview reaffirmed the associations’ commitment to stick to FIFA guidelines for the current executive led by Andrew Kamanga to remain in office until the the elections are held.
Mweemba said the four-day ultimatum given by banned football administrator Damiano Mutale, former FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya and Patson Lusaka through their lawyers Lewis Nathan Advocates to vacate will not stop them from doing the right thing.
Mweemba said, as a member of FIFA, FAZ would follow the world soccer governing body’s guidelines to prevent a possible ban.
“There is no way we can vacate office because of those two individuals. We can’t! We have to make sure that a proper handover is done as we go on as the procedure should be.
“We must go to the annual general meeting and hand over to the electoral committee and let the electoral committee take over the meeting and then let those people who will be elected to take over office, that’s the procedure,” Mweemba said.
Mweemba called on aggrieved football administrators to respect FIFA guidelines if they mean well.
“If Zambia today is banned by FIFA it means, we are no longer members of FIFA, meaning we can’t play their game then we’ll become destitutes. That is why we must follow the rules of FIFA and they should be respected.
“Those who are not our members, once they become ordinary citizens, they should stop coming to interfere with the running of football, that way our game will be okay,” he said.
Mutale, Bwalya and Lusaka through their lawyers Lewis Nathan Advocates on Wednesday asked the minister of Sports to instruct Kamanga to leave Football House by this tomorrow.
The National Sports Council of Zambia had earlier urged sports administrators involved in FAZ wrangles to wait for FIFA to resolve the wrangles.
The three argued that Kamanga’s stay in office is illegal because his mandate ended on March 19, and therefore the general secretary was to take over the running of FAZ till elections are held.
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