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Harare Bureau
THE Asiagate saga, which has played out for about four years now, was effectively closed on Thursday when the Fifa Disciplinary Committee chairman advised Zifa that the sanctions imposed on players and officials cannot be endorsed and extended to have a worldwide effect.
The case has been hanging, for the past two years, with Zifa saying they are waiting for Fifa to confirm the sanctions they imposed on scores of individuals.

In a letter sent and signed by Octavian Bivolaru, the deputy secretary to the Disciplinary Committee, Fifa told Zifa that in spite of mountains of material which the local association lodged with the Zurich organisation as evidence, they still failed to find substance to warrant them to endorse even one of sanctions.

“In this regard, we would like to refer you to our previous letter of November 25, 2013 and to confirm that, based on the documents currently in our possession and for reasons explained in the aforementioned letter, the chairman of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee is not in a position to extend the sanctions imposed by your association on various players and officials in the scope of the investigations and proceedings conducted into the ‘Asiagate’ scandal so as to have worldwide extent in accordance with act. 136 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (FDC),” Bivolaru wrote in a letter delivered to Zifa on Thursday.

The final letter, which Fifa wrote on Thursday, was necessitated by letters of complaints from stakeholders among them the Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe who were pressing the international soccer mother body to act on the request as players, coaches and officials were in limbo due to the inconclusive case.

Bivolaru told our Harare Bureau from Zurich that they had communicated the decision to Zifa as far back as last October and were surprised that the association did not communicate the position to the affected people.

“As FDC, we wrote in October and followed up in November last year with a communication to the effect that the committee failed to find any case against all the people cited and ask Zifa to provide any other evidence which might not be in our possession to enable Fifa to act.
“Zifa has repeatedly failed to provide any evidence which could enable Fifa to endorse the bans imposed on players and officials.

“This last communication is meant to close this chapter, so that we can move on,” Bivolaru said.
It is ironic that Zifa, who were fully aware of the Fifa decision and even discussed it at their last board meeting, failed to either notify the concerned parties or call a Press conference like they did on October 18, 2012 as they handed down the bans.

Instead Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze wrote to Fifa requesting a meeting in Zurich, something the international mother body thought was pointless in the absence of fresh evidence.

“Furthermore, we note that you have requested a meeting between your association and Fifa to discuss the matter,” wrote Bivolaru.
“In this respect, you are kindly asked to provide the chairman of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee with any documents and evidence that are not already in the possession of the chairman, and which would justify the holding of such meeting.

“Upon receipt of the aforementioned documentation, the chairman of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee will evaluate any further steps to be taken, in particular the opportunity to hold a meeting as requested by your association,” the letter added.

Bivolaru confirmed that the Fifa Secretary-General Jerome Valcke, told his committee that Zifa, who have already been to Zurich on the same matter, cannot have that meeting as clearly there is no new evidence that Zifa can and have not produced already.

“The General Secretary is actually angry with us for the lack of progress and finality to the Asiagate,” Bivolaru told our Harare Bureau.

“He said that it is clear that Zifa violated the standing rules in the manner they have handled the case and therefore players, coaches and officials cannot just be banned at the whim of those in power without a recourse to the laid down rules.

“The meeting is unnecessary as nothing will change that there is no case to answer for all the affected because it is quite clear they did not bring football into disrepute,” Bivolaru added to the paper.

Fifa, who have maintained from the outset that Zifa failed to handle the case procedurally, said the evidence favoured with them in their landmark decision to ask the 15 players and officials handed life bans, proved beyond any doubt that the Fifa Disciplinary Code was not followed in the matter.

The latest Fifa position is a blow to the Zifa board that has since cracked, under the weight of the case, with only a few militants, led by Mashingaidze, dragging the case on.

“In May last year, we asked the 15 players and officials handed life bans to write directly to Fifa explaining their cases.
“All of them stated that there were neither charges laid against them nor a disciplinary hearing called before the punishment was handed. The FDC found that impermissible and referred back the matter to Zifa with instructions for them to provide evidence of the allegations.
“Zifa have not produced any evidence good enough to prosecute making it impossible for Fifa to endorse the ban”, said Bivolaru.
Interestingly, two players, Method Mwanjali and Thomas Sweswe, who appealed against their bans and paid US$6 000 each with Zifa in December 2012, haven’t been advised of the decisions of the Appeals Committee which met last year.

Reports indicate that the three-man Appeals Committee is holding on to their judgment until Zifa have addressed the issue of payments, which should be made for their services, and this has kept the players in limbo despite the duo having satisfied their part by paying the US$6 000 appeal fees.

That people who appealed in December 2012 are yet to get their verdicts also paints a sorry picture of a process that appears to have lost its way.