The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has confirmed the visit to Zimbabwe of a delegation consisting of FIFA and CAF officials this week.
The delegation is on a fact-finding mission to map the way forward following ZIFA’s ban from international football in 2022.
The PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele said they have been invited to interact with the delegation during its three-day visit to Zimbabwe.
Ndebele was quoted by NewsDay as saying they will try to convince FIFA to lift Zimbabwe’s suspension from international football. Said Ndebele:
This serves to confirm that as PSL we have been invited to attend a FIFA/CAF mission which will be in Zimbabwe from April 17 to April 19, 2023. Our meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
We are excited as the PSL that we have the privilege of meeting the FIFA/CAF delegation.
All the club chairpersons who are the governors for the PSL have been invited and have confirmed their attendance.
This is an important meeting. We are excited and looking forward to positive engagement with the FIFA/CAF mission so that we re-engage and get our football back on track.
It is our hope that we will have positive input for us to then get FIFA to look at the way forward.
We will present all the challenges that we are facing in our football; hopefully, we will then get FIFA to relook at the suspension of Zimbabwe and we are back to the football family.
… It is important for all the PSL clubs to be represented and interface with this high level delegation that obviously is also looking forward to Zimbabwe getting back into the FIFA family.
We have had years of stagnation, years of lack of development, years of yearning to be better than some member associations but we seem to be lagging behind a lot.
This great opportunity that has presented itself or this privilege that we have been given; we will take it and present all that we feel should be done to improve football in Zimbabwe
The FIFA/CAF delegation includes Sarah Solemane, senior MA Governance Manager, Solomon Mudege, head of development programmes Africa and regional office development manager South Africa, David Fani.
FIFA suspended Zimbabwe on 25 February 2022 for alleged third-party interference after the SRC had suspended the ZIFA board led by Felton Kamambo on 16 November 2021.
The other ZIFA executives suspended are Philemon Machana, Bryton Malandule and Joseph Mamutse.
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