FIFA reaffirms decision on Gambia

The football world governing body which was reacting to concerns raised by some stakeholders also emphasised that it is pointless to try to individualise their disagreement with FIFA’s decisions.

The global body appointed Gambian lawmaker Alhagie Sillah as the chairman of the five-member normalisation committee after its Emergency Committee on the 10th of July took the decision in accordance with Article 7; Paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes, to authorise the FIFA administration to identify five persons to form such committee in order to solve the problems we are faced with.

That article of the Statutes states: “Executive bodies of Member Associations may under exceptional circumstances be removed from office by the Executive Committee in consultation with the relevant Confederation [in this case CAF] and replaced by a normalisation committee for a specific period of time.”

Some 20 domestic clubs and representatives from regional and affiliate associations had earlier reacted to FIFA’s decision and raised concerns as to the morality of the decision. But according to the Standard, FIFA in its response to the stakeholders noted that they have acknowledged the receipt of their correspondences with regard to the nomination of a normalisation committee.

“We can inform you that, in the meantime, the members of the normalisation committee have been identified and their names communicated to the general secretary of the Gambia Football Federation (GFF).”

The FIFA letter added that it is stated in their previous letters, the Normalisation Committee is tasked with the organisation of the election of a new GFF executive committee by 15 September 2014 at the latest, and in the meantime, it will also run the daily affairs of the GFF.

FIFA added that they have taken note of their complaints but would want to stress that all decisions made with regard to the GFF, notably the setting up of the normalisation committee, were coming from the legitimate FIFA organs.“It is therefore pointless to try to individualise your disagreement with the FIFA decisions.

A new electoral process is about to start and it will be open to whoever complies with the statutory requirements. We trust that the normalisation committee will succeed in achieving the objectives set by FIFA and that it will count on the support of all GFF stakeholders,” it concluded.

Source Daily Observer