Zifa president arrested

Sport
It is understood that Kamambo was arrested at Airlink’s offices where he was trying to change his ticket with an intention to leave the country for Qatar today.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

Woes continue to mount for the suspended Zifa president Felton Kamambo after he was reportedly arrested by the police at the Robert Mugabe International Airport yesterday morning.

It is understood that Kamambo was arrested at Airlink’s offices where he was trying to change his ticket with an intention to leave the country for Qatar today.

This is the second time in a space of eight days that Kamambo’s attempt to travel abroad has been foiled. Last week, he was barred by the airport security from travelling to Yaounde to attend the Afcon finals.

However, PSL chairman Farai Jere, who is part of the suspended board was allowed to travel alongside Dynamos chairman Isiah Mupfurutsa after they were invited to Cameroon by the CAF president Patrice Motsepe.

Last month, Kamambo and Philemon Machana, the board member finance and Zifa board acting vice-president also tried to travel to Cameroon during the group stages matches and were barred.

And Kamambo was expected to travel to Qatar this weekend for a Fifa meeting.

“Felton Kamambo is at the airport where he wanted to change his ticket to allow him to travel to Qatar tomorrow. He has since been taken by CID officials from the Airlink offices to the police post at the Robert Mugabe International Airport,” a source told StandardSport yesterday.

“The police are looking for Machana and Mamutse as well on allegations of fraud,” added the source.

Reports suggested that Machana had also been picked up by the CID police at his home.

The trio made headlines last week on allegations that they wrote to Fifa asking for the world football governing body to impose a ban on the country for what they believed was government interference through the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).

SRC suspended the Zifa board on November 16 on a litany of charges, which included gross incompetence, failure to account for public funds and sexual abuse of female referees, among others.

And while other board members such as Sugar Chagonda, Jere and Barbara Chikosi accepted the suspension, the others along with Mamutse, who was suspended last year for allegedly breaching Covid-19 regulations in the clearing of national teams for international assignments, have decided to fight the local sports regulation body.

In the process the suspended Zifa board has been allegedly communicating with Fifa in defiance of the SRC ban.

In December Fifa, which continues to communicate with Kamambo and his team, threatened to impose stiff sanctions on Zimbabwe if the board was not reinstated by January 3.

Kamambo has a case in the courts where he is accused of bribing his way to the Zifa presidency in December 2018.

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