Zambia: Men offside, but women in penalty box
One of the best women’s football teams in Africa might miss the Olympics thanks to men’s nonsense.
Zambia’s women’s football team could be barred from participating in the 2024 Olympics because of a corruption crisis – even though the crisis in question has nothing to do with them.
The president of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ), Andrew Kamanga, its general secretary Reuben Kamanga and two others were arrested and charged with graft. Zambian authorities allege that they took more than $16,500 from the government to fund the travel of two unassociated individuals to Afcon 2024 in Côte d’Ivoire earlier this year. They deny wrongdoing.
Following the arrests, football’s governing body Fifa instructed FAZ to call its annual general meeting and address the issue there, but the Zambian high court issued an injunction against the meeting. On Tuesday, Fifa said that failing to hold the meeting showed the “undue influence by third parties” which is prohibited and could get FAZ suspended.
FAZ argues that its suspension would rule the Copper Queens out of the Olympics and the Women’s Afcon, for which they have already qualified, as national teams can’t participate in international tournaments when their home associations are suspended.
The saga is the latest in a pattern of costly misconduct and dodgy dealings by sports managers that undermine the hard work of athletes.
But sportspeople are fighting back. In Kenya, athletes staged a protest against athletics bosses in March. And in Cameroon the legendary Samuel Eto’o – now the federation president – is being investigated for alleged match-fixing.