Fifa bans Mali over gov’t interference

Mali has been served a worldwide ban by football governing body FIFA on Friday, a follow-up to the West African country’s refusal to rescind his decision to dissolve the executive committee of its football federation, the Femafoot.

Last week Wednesday, Sports Minister Housseini Amion Guindo caused the disbandment of the Malian FA (Femafoot) over mismanagement of the country’s football. He followed up with the appointment of a 19-member interim committee with a one-year mandate during which it has to restructure Femafoot and lead the election of new executives.

Parts of Fifa’s statement on Mali suspension signed by General Secretary Fatma Samoura read: “Consequently, the Femafoot loses all its membership rights… This also means that none of the representative teams and the affiliated clubs of the Femafoot are no longer entitled to take part in international competitions.”

“The Femafoot and its members can no longer benefit from the development programs of Fifa or Caf.

“The suspension will be lifted once ministerial decisions are nullified and the executive committee of Femafoot and its president, Boubacar Baba Diarra, is reinstated,” Fifa said.

The decision means Malian clubs who were set to take part in this weekend’s Caf inter-club competitions cannot honour their games and automatically get booted out, if the ministerial decisions are not reversed immediately.

The senior national team also risk being excluded from the qualifiers of the 2019 Afcon and the 2018 World Cup if the dispute is not resolved to world governing body’s satisfaction by the time the qualifiers resume later in the year.

 

Source: starrsportsgh.com

 

Mali has been served a worldwide ban by football governing body FIFA on Friday, a follow-up to the West African country’s refusal to rescind his decision to dissolve the executive committee of its football federation, the Femafoot. Last week Wednesday, Sports Minister Housseini Amion Guindo caused the disbandment of the Malian FA (Femafoot) over mismanagement … Read Full Story