WILL THE ZEBRAS GET SUSPENDED BY FIFA?

November 23rd, 2010 | by: kealeboga | Comments(43)

The issue of whether Zebras might get suspended from FIFA activities owing to what political interference has become an issue of national importance and indeed some of our opponents (read sscouser) will be hoping this comes to pass. How real is this fear? Let me explain exactly what is going on. The President of Botswana Seretse Khama Ian Khama introduced a series of competitions around the country. These competitions are based on constituencies (voting areas) and they involve all sports. There is an argument as to whether they should be called leagues or just tournaments but that really is immaterial. The real issue is they interfering with Botswana Football Association activities? Are they contravening FIFA rules especially Article 13.1(g) of the FIFA official rule book which states national federations are obliged “to manage their affairs independently and ensure that their own affairs are not influenced by any third parties”. Can a strong enough case be made for the suspension of Botswana?
The debate has been nothing short of a circus really, we have the Botswana Football Association-BFA first telling Batswana that the all powerful FIFA somehow discovered the constituency league and was demanding answers from BFA, then, put under pressure from government it was discovered that BFA actually wrote to FIFA seeking counsel as to how best to deal with the constituency league. FIFA replied asking for further clarification. BFA stalled never provided the clarification needed leading to FIFA threatening to escalate the case to the leagues committee. THEY NEVER THREATENED TO KICK OUT BOTSWANA!!!!! It was around this time that the issue became national. As things stand there is nothing for FIFA to go on as BFA has since withdrawn its complaint.

This is where and when a new complication arose. Opposition parties suddenly decided that government had pressured BFA to withdraw so ALL opposition parties jumped on the band wagon and reported the Botswana government and I suppose BFA to FIFA , Complaining of political interference. Their argument is that the constituency leagues are used to garner political favors for the ruling party and as they are better funded than the regular lower football leagues. Consequently, players are quitting mainstream football and are forming their own teams to compete for in the lucrative constituency league now dubbed “Khama’s football games” by the participants themselves. The argument is a valid one it is clear that the ruling party is gaining a lot of political capital because of the games and indeed the lower divisions of mainstream football are losing players. It is however hard to make a convincing point that the interference is intentional or institutionalized…rule 6.1 of the constituency tournament states quite clearly that a player registered with BFA cannot play in the tournaments.
One needs to note one very crucial thing teams in diamond reach Botswana are horribly under resourced no team in the premier league has its own training ground let alone playing ground!!! So all this money going to the constituency league could have assisted greatly in resourcing teams. This is part of the reason the football community is up in arms against the league.

A tenuous case can be made but I doubt FIFA can really suspend on the basis of such flimsy, wishy washy evidence. An advice on how to go forward would be the likely result. The president LOVES football he would not jeopardize the country’s chance to play at the nation’s cup.

An area of concern is that politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition have now joined the furor the issue is being used to score political points and the opposition parties have even gone to the extent of actually fighting over who was the first to report government to FIFA. Yes it has gotten that petty. Should FIFA suspend anyone, it will not be on the basis of the controversial league (which by the way I happen to be against) but because Zebras success was used to score political points. Should the Zebras be kicked out of CAF after they have qualified that would be a monumental disaster that can only benefit politicians as they would then engage in a new game of who’s to blame. Whoever is found guilty is likely to suffer the wrath of Batswana voters for a long time. But for Tunisia and Malawi if you think you will sneak in by the back door after the best team has been suspended disabuse yourselves of such thoughts the possibility of that happening is between nil and nothing and nil is out of town!!!! One of you will not be at the nations cup it is up to you to decide who because we are already packing our bags!!!!