Zanzibar’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) membership was rescinded just four months after the island was accepted following the reforms that were made during the extraordinary congress in Morocco.
According to the current CAF president Ahmad, Zanzibar shouldn’t have been accepted as the 55th member in the first place.
“They were admitted without properly looking into our statutes and they are crystal clear,” CAF president Ahmad told the assembly.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“CAF cannot admit two different associations from one country and the definition of a country comes from the African Union and the United Nations.”[/perfectpullquote]
According to the CAF statuses, under article 11 (admissions), Subject to paragraph 5, only one member is supposed to be recognized as a member association in each country.
The breach of admission rules was the major reason that led to Zanzibar’s exit. Membership is only permitted if an association is currently a member of a Confederation plus the four British associations.
The congress in trying to align with FIFA, following the refusal to admit Zanzibar when CAF under former president Issa Hayatou, accepted the East African island into its ranks, thereafter, made the decision to drop it as one of its members.
Despite operating in regional competitions as an independent entity, semi-autonomous Zanzibar will compete as part of Tanzania in CAF national competitions.
It will stay an associate member state meaning that only clubs from Zanzibar will be allowed to play in CAF club competitions as independent entities.
Among other reforms were; voting procedures, election processes, the appointment of staff, an age limit of 70, and eligibility checks for committee members.
COAUTHOR: Daphine Kamurungi
Featured Photo: Getty Images
