FIFA confirms Normalization Committee for Ghana; reveals mandate

Football's world governing body, FIFA, has revealed that it will appoint a Normalization Committee to manage the affairs Ghana Football Association (GFA) for the next six months.

The body to be appointed to run the GFA will pave the way for elections to be held when their mandate expires on 31st March next year.

Members of the Normalisation Committee will be appointed only by FIFA and CAF with no government involvement in line with the codes of non-governmental interference in the sport.

FIFA made this revelation on Wednesday just 24 hours after the Ghana government fulfilled its promise of withdrawing the petition to liquidate the GFA.

FIFA will no longer carry out its threat of suspending the country as government has now met all the conditions for football to return to the country.

The Normalization Committee will now run the day-to-day activities of the GFA together with the staff of the federation after the police placed the federation under lock and key.

No member of the Normalization Committee will be able to stand for elections for any post within the Ghana Football Association.

Members pencilled down for the Normalization Committee must pass an eligibility check to be carried out by the FIFA Review Committee before they can be appointed.

The confirmation of the FIFA Normalisation Committee means that the work of the FIFA/CAF liaison team for the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has ended.

A special FIFA Task Force will be put in place to investigate the allegations of wrongdoing against some members of the previous administration to establish the facts and prescribe punishments.

The normalisation committee’s mandate will include the following tasks:

- To run the GFA’s daily affairs and cooperate with the special task force once it has been set up by FIFA, CAF and the Government of Ghana;

- To review the GFA statutes to ensure compliance with the requirements of FIFA and CAF, particularly art. 15 of the FIFA Statutes, and;

- Once the GFA statutes meet the requirements of FIFA and CAF, to organise and conduct elections of a GFA executive committee on the basis of the revised GFA statutes.

According to FIFA the normalisation committee shall be composed of an adequate number of members to be identified by a joint FIFA/CAF mission to be deployed to Ghana as soon as possible.

All members of the normalisation committee must pass an eligibility check to be carried out by the FIFA Review Committee.

The normalisation committee will act as an electoral committee and none of its members will be eligible for any of the open positions in the elections.

The specified period of time during which the normalisation committee shall perform its functions shall expire when all of the above-mentioned tasks have been properly fulfilled, but by no later than 31 March 2019.

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