BY MICHAEL MIYOBA and MUKWIMA CHILALA
BARELY a day after Damiano Mutale threatened to go back to court to activate the cases where he sued FAZ, the global soccer governing body FIFA responded by setting September 1st as the date for the much anticipated meeting between FIFA, FAZ and aggrieved football stakeholders.
FIFA chief Member Association’s officer Veron Masengo Omba confirmed that the meeting will be held on Tuesday through a video conference.
In a letter addressed to FAZ General Secretary Adrian Kashala, Omba said the virtual meeting will comprise a representative from FAZ, Ministry of Sports, National Council officials and Maximum of three representatives of the aggrieved parties from the electoral process.
Omba said the agenda of the meeting includes opening remarks by FIFA followed by remarks from the Ministry of Sports or the National Sports Council of Zambia NSCZ and remarks from alleged aggrieved parties on the electoral process.
FIFA will then state the way forward after hearing the grievances from the concerned parties to put an end to the squabbles which have affected the Zambian game.
Meanwhile soccer administrator Blackwell Siwale said the aggrieved individuals will hold a meeting to select three individuals who will represent them during the meeting with FIFA.
Speaking in an interview, Siwale said the aggrieved parties will present facts on how the FAZ executive had continued to stay in office illegally after their mandate ended.
“Among us who are aggrieved we will find people who are eloquent enough to drive a point to FIFA and make them understand the impact of football in Zambia.
“We need to show FIFA that the current executive is sitting in office illegally today, has been breaching the constitution and are facing criminal cases. We also have the issue of the electoral process,” Siwale said.
Damiano Mutale and Patson Lusaka who had earlier signed a consent judgment pending FIFA intervention into Zambian football electoral wrangles on Friday threatened to go back to court because of FAZ and FIFA’s delay to state when the crucial meeting would be held to iron out wrangles.
Mutale was concerned that FIFA had failed to confirm when it would send officials to deal with the warring football administrators over a month after the sports administrators signed a consent judgement which compelled the aggrieved parties to withdraw their court cases to avoid a FIFA ban.
The consent judgment also prevented FAZ from going ahead with the FAZ elections which were initially slated for March this year but later postponed due to the corona virus pandemic and court cases by aggrieved parties.
