The controversial Lagardere Sponsorship deal signed by the Hayatou CAF administration less than two years ago is subject to criminal investigations in Egypt and has been a source of further investigations under various regulatory bodies in Africa for being unfairly awarded without any form of competition. The Largadere contract is what led to the departure of former CAF Secretary General Hicham El Ehmerani from CAF after the election of Ahmad Ahmad.
The question begging answers is how can FAZ General Secretary Ponga Liwewe claim that he had been dealing with Largadere in perimeter advertising before his appointment at FAZ when his appointment and the signing of the Largadere contracts with CAF are only a few months apart. There is no record of Mpila Zambia ever being engaged by CAF in stadium branding on the continent. Why then could CAF or Largadere engage Mpila Zambia knowing full well one of its directors is a senior member of FAZ. This further invigorates the Egyptian authorities of Largarderes underhand business dealings.
Notwithstanding his shallow rebuttal in today’s [Thursday] Times of Ponga the fact his Impila Zambia has anything to with a company facing criminal investigations should be enough to raise red flags.
CAF used to use a Malawian national Felix Sapao to do the stadium branding for CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup matches in Zambia. Later on Anthony Destombes of Execusports of South Africa was engaged but never a member of the previous administration not even spouses as suggested by social media fora. For all Africa and World Cup matches a local company called Global Banners in conjunction with the FAZ Marketing office dealt with all issues of stadium branding. It is therefore criminal for the office the FAZ General Secretary or his company to have any business dealings with an Association he superintendents.The best he should have done is declare interest and not participate in any business dealings with his employers.
The termination of the MAFRO kit sponsorship contract has been done under eye dropping circumstances leading to people to suspect foul play.
The first signs that things were amiss with MAFRO was the difference in sponsorship amounts between the Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe Football Associations with MAFRO. While Kenya declared US$450 000.00 Zambia with a far much higher soccer pedigree declared US$200 000.00. Figures being bundled around suggest that the Zambian federation got US$500 000.00 while the remainder was shared between two senior members of the current administration.
The sale of players to the South Africa Premier Soccer League by way of players Brian Mwila, Rodrick Kabwe and Aubrey Funga has the FAZ GS imprints all over them.
That is not all, the entire CEO of FAZ travelled to South Africa to purchase off the shelf Kappa kit from Rasheed Kassim Sports Shop for use by the Zambia U20 team during the Under 20 Africa Youth Championships held in Zambia. Surely he cannot be doing all this damage without the knowledge of his supervisor
Before he does further financial and administrative damage to the cash strapped Association let the docile FAZ Executive Committee take action.
Source: Maureen Kawengele [Facebook]
The post Opinion: FAZ CEO Should Have Declared Interest In Branding Deal; Lagardere Is Under Criminal Investigations In Egypt appeared first on Zambia Reports.
