Tue, 27 Dec 2016 08:42:38 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
TWO councillors banned by Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) disciplinary committee have appealed against the verdict to the appeals committee and have maintained the action against them was null and void.
Damiano Mutale of Damiano Academy and Kelvin Chipili of Zanama Brave Rangers who were banned over a month ago for gross misconduct said they decided to appeal the disciplinary committee’s action on them despite not being communicated to officially over their ban from all footballing activities.
Mutale told the Daily Nation sports yesterday that they had appealed the verdict because they knew FAZ was looking for a loophole to pin them after the expiry of the period to appeal.
“We only heard about our fate through the media after we refused to attend their disciplinary hearing because they never communicated to us officially but because we knew their motive was to find a loophole to fix us, we went ahead and appealed before time elapsed and we are waiting for our case to be heard.
“As far as we are concerned, there is no crime we committed and we still maintain that the disciplinary committee’s decision is null and void because its sitting was in breach of FIFA and FAZ rules and that is why we refused to have our case heard by that composition,” Mutale said.
He said the councillors did not recognise the disciplinary committee because it was in total abrogation of the FAZ constitution as its vice chairperson Simataa Simataa was not a lawyer as stipulated by Article 46.
He added that there was no way Simataa could preside over their matter when he had unresolved issues with the association yet he was part of the same disciplinary committee that should have cleared or found him guilty of the offences he was alleged to have committed.
He also said FAZ president Andrew Kamanga still had pending issues with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) while Alex Munasha’s issues had not been brought to the same committee and wondered why there were double standards in instilling discipline among FAZ officials.
“Munasha has a matter before the said disciplinary committee yet it has not summoned him and the matter has not been brought to the committee. You are aware that Kamanga has not been cleared against the criminal cases he is being investigated for by ACC to which I am an interested party and that made it impossible for us to appear before the disciplinary committee.
“Simataa, the vice chairman of the disciplinary committee, is not a lawyer as per FAZ constitution Article 46 and therefore makes this committee invalid. Simata also has some issues which are not yet cleared by the association yet he was part of the committee contrary to FIFA rules and so, with all these anomalies with the disciplinary committee, we saw it fit that we stay away because it was clear that we were not going to have a fair hearing as our matter was predetermined,” he said.
