No joy for Kazala at FAZ AGM

Expelled FAZ vice president Richard Kazala left the FAZ AGM meeting angry and disappointed after the FAZ council declined to hear his plea due to a technicality.

Kazala, who was expelled in 2017, recent won a ruling through the International Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) to be heard before the FAZ AGM.

However, since then Kazala had gone to the courts to push for his reinstatement and in so doing saw the issue sail into a legal mine field.

FAZ president Andrew Kamanga in his address to the council explained Football House’s decision not to table the matter.

“We would like to recognize the presence of Mr Kazala, our immediate past Vice President. On this occasion he is here because of the matter that is before us,” Kamanga said.

“Just to give a brief background, last year at the FAZ Council a decision was made to expel Mr Kazala and indeed he appealed to the Court of Arbitration in Sports which essentially is the court of football affairs as enshrined in our constitution as well as the FIFA Statutes.

“Anything to do with football disputes is handled by the Court of Arbitration of Sports.
“In our constitution we have duly recognized the directives of CAS, failure to implement the directives of CAS which is a breach of our constitution and clearly it would entail FIFA taking action against the Football Association of Zambia.
“Going forward an award was given to Mr Kazala in December in specific conditions which have been attended to, the CAS award has been circulated to this council.

“Mr Kazala has equally been accorded an opportunity to respond to the charges levelled against him which charges have been circulated by email as well as hard copies to this council.

“I will summarize where we are today. On the 6th of March 2018 Mr obtained an exparte order before the Kitwe High Court where he was allowed to register the CAS arbitral award. CAS had indicated Mr Kazala should be given a hearing at the AGM so that he can state his side of the story before the FAZ Council.
“Subsequent to that he registered the award before the Kitwe High Court. On 21st of March 2018, Mr Kazala obtained yet another exparte order before the Kitwe High Court compelling the Football Association of Zambia to comply with provisions of the CAS award. It was noted however that said award included some reliefs which had not been granted in the CAS award and substantially faltered the spirit of the CAS award as originally given. On the 30th of March 2018 FAZ obtained an exparte order to stay the postage of the order obtained by Mr Kazala pending an application to have Mr Kazala’s second order being set aside.
“Further the matter has been addressed by the legal committee and it has since been resolved as follows:

“The agenda item relating to Mr Kazala’s appeal before the council should not be tabled for deliberation at this FAZ AGM as the said matter is now a full court matter and as such any deliberation in that respect will be subjudice. Under judicial consideration therefore prohibited from discussion or consideration. This has been amplified by the High Court order of obtained dated 30th March 2018. So mush as we would have loved to proceed with Mr Kazala’s matter unfortunately it is now a full blown court case and as such we are in no position to deliberate anything in that regard as we will be held in contempt. So for that reason this the position we would like to communicate to the council so that at an opportune time when the court decide on the matter then the council will still be called upon to deal with the matter. This is where we are.”