Sports / Soccer
ZIFA sets up an Asiagate scam disciplinary committee
12 Aug 2011 at 07:03hrs | Views
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) will finally set up a disciplinary committee into the Asiagate scam during the association's board meeting on Sunday, the Daily News can reported on Thursday.
Sunday's is the first Zifa board meeting since the leakage of a scathing report into Zimbabwe's match-fixing activities, which fingered several players, officials and journalists of accepting money from an Asian betting syndicate to lose matches in several trips to the Far East between 2007 and 2009.
"The disciplinary committee will be mandated to carry out disciplinary action according to football rules," a source within the board said on Wednesday.
"There are two ways of going about it. The football aspect and the legal aspect. Ours is the footbasll aspect. We have been mandated by Fifa to carry out disciplinary action in accordance with Fifa statutes."
The board meeting on Sunday is also Zifa's second in the year.
"There has been so much talk about the Asiagate scandal," said the source. "It is the first time Zifa is going to discuss this at board level."
The highly-placed official said any cause of action taken by the committee will not spare anyone fingered in the scandal, including those outside Zifa structures.
"If supporters can be punished by Fifa, so why can't Zifa punish non-Zifa or non-football people here?" he said. "Fifa has the right to ban supporters from its matches, yet they are not in football structures. As long as it has to do with football, anyone found guilty by Zifa will face the music."
Sunday's is the first Zifa board meeting since the leakage of a scathing report into Zimbabwe's match-fixing activities, which fingered several players, officials and journalists of accepting money from an Asian betting syndicate to lose matches in several trips to the Far East between 2007 and 2009.
"The disciplinary committee will be mandated to carry out disciplinary action according to football rules," a source within the board said on Wednesday.
"There are two ways of going about it. The football aspect and the legal aspect. Ours is the footbasll aspect. We have been mandated by Fifa to carry out disciplinary action in accordance with Fifa statutes."
"There has been so much talk about the Asiagate scandal," said the source. "It is the first time Zifa is going to discuss this at board level."
The highly-placed official said any cause of action taken by the committee will not spare anyone fingered in the scandal, including those outside Zifa structures.
"If supporters can be punished by Fifa, so why can't Zifa punish non-Zifa or non-football people here?" he said. "Fifa has the right to ban supporters from its matches, yet they are not in football structures. As long as it has to do with football, anyone found guilty by Zifa will face the music."
Source - Daily News
