RABAT: African football passed changes to its statutes on Friday to bring them into line with reforms at global body FIFA following its corruption scandal, and dropped Zanzibar as one of its members after deciding its admission had breached the rules.

The CAF was forced to drop Zanzibar as one if its members, just four months after the island — which forms part of Tanzania but plays football independently in regional competitions — was admitted as the confederation’s 55th member. They were admitted without properly looking into our statutes and they are crystal clear, CAF president Ahmad told the assembly. CAF cannot admit two different associations from one country and the definition of a country comes from the African Union and the UN.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017