By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – Zambia’s FA is endorsing its former president Kalusha Bwalya (pictured) to run for a FIFA Council position next spring even though he is alleged to have accepted bribes from disgraced former FIFA vice-president Mohammed Bin Hammam.
In September Guinea’s Almamy Kabele Camara and Ghana’s Kwesi Nyantakyi were elected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to sit on the expanded 36-member Council but their posts only run until March, 2017.
The Zambian FA’s executive committee met on Saturday and “unanimously agreed to support Kalusha Bwalya’s nomination for FIFA Council membership”.
Bwalya’s nomination is reportedly being backed by the Zambian government though the 1998 African Footballer of the Year will have to pass an integrity test before he can make the ballot. African reports say he is still under investigation by Anti-Corruption officials.
Bwalya, Zambia’s second most capped player, lost the FAZ presidency to Andrew Kamanga by 163 to 156 votes in March this year.
Two years ago, he was one of 30 African powerbrokers who, according to the Sunday Times newspaper, allegedly received bribes from Qatar’s bin Hammam to influence the outcome of the 2022 World Cup bid campaign.
The Sunday Times released a number of emails out of “hundreds of millions” of documents it says it obtained, some of which pointed to evidence of alleged slush funds. The documents related to payments allegedly made by Bin Hammam whose staff are claimed to have paid $50,000 into Bwalya’s bank account, with no evidence to suggest he ever repaid the debt, the newspaper said.
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