‘We’ve had enough’: anger threatens Zambian football after election controversy

The Zambian FA’s president Andrew Kamanga was re-elected unopposed after eight nominees were disqualified. Zambia’s victory at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon remains one of football’s most compelling stories. Returning to the country where most of the Chipolopolo squad had been killed in a plane crash almost two decades earlier en route to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal, Zambia defeated the heavy favourites Ivory Coast in the final on penalties to become African champions for the first time. But you won’t find any trace of that famous triumph at the Football Association of Zambia’s headquarters in Lusaka.

“If you walk into Football House today, you will never find a single picture of what is our greatest achievement,” says Godfrey Chikumbi, a journalist and the vice-president of Mansa Wanderers in Zambia’s northern Luapula province. That, he says, is down to Andrew Kamanga, who in 2016 succeeded Kalusha Bwalya, one of the few surviving members of the 1993 squad, as president of the FA (Faz).

“He has removed the pictures and shredded them,” Chikumbi says. “Kamanga doesn’t want to be associated with it because of Kalusha. He doesn’t like competition.”. This week Kamanga was granted a third term in office after eight nominees were controversially disqualified from standing against him in elections scheduled for next month because they failed to meet “constitutional requirements”. They included candidates having to pass an integrity test and having five years’ experience in a Faz leadership position – a stipulation that it has been claimed was added after the regulations were confirmed at last year’s annual general meeting.

Kamanga’s unopposed re-election was described as the “joke of the century” by the lawyer Keith Mweemba, the owner of the Zambian Super League club Muza who was one of those barred. Faz’s former general secretary Adrian Kashala was another of the eight. They have until next week to appeal, although Kamanga – a 58-year-old accountant who made his fortune through his ownership of a power utility company – has been declared the winner by Faz’s electoral committee. “It tells you that the appeal process is academic,” says the president of another leading Zambian club who does not want to be named. “They have definitely jumped the gun.”.

Chikumbi was ruled out after being deemed to not have the necessary experience and has decided against an appeal. He reported Kamanga and other senior members of Faz to Zambia’s anti-corruption commission and its drug enforcement commission (DEC), which handles allegations of fraud and malpractice, a few hours after the news was made public on Tuesday, claiming they forged and altered the constitution to prevent the other candidates from standing.

“I feel that [an appeal] would be wasting my time,” Chikumbi says. “So the best thing for me to do was then go to the courts, where I know that justice will be guaranteed.”. Fifa prohibits government interference in any national association and may impose a normalisation committee on Zambia if the courts overrule Faz’s decision over the elections. “I would rather be banned by Fifa because Andrew Kamanga has been committing crimes against football in Zambia and getting away with it for many years,” Chikumbi says.

World football’s governing body did not respond to a request to comment. It is understood several of the prospective candidates are considering taking the case to the court of arbitration for sport if Fifa does not intervene. A boycott of domestic matches is also believed to have been discussed.

That could be deeply damaging to Kamanga, who will run for a seat on the Fifa council in elections due to take place on 12 March in Cairo and has been backed by the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) and Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa). He was cleared to stand by Fifa’s review committee despite being charged by the DEC with obtaining government funds under false pretences and being part of a conspiracy to defraud last year . Those charges put the women’s team’s participation at last year’s Olympics at risk.

It has been alleged that Kamanga used government funds to arrange trips for two associates to the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast last year. Faz’s general secretary, Reuben Kamanga, was also arrested and charged, along with Madalitso Kamanga and Jairous Siame, who travelled to the tournament as part of Faz’s support staff. All have denied the charges.

Sign up to Football Daily. Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football. after newsletter promotion. The DEC confirmed last week that the case remained active, despite discussions having been initiated regarding a potential out-of-court settlement. According to Chikumbi and the other candidates, that should have made Andrew Kamanga ineligible to stand in the elections because the regulations prevent anyone who is the subject of pending criminal investigations from taking part.