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Chadian football banned by Fifa following government intrusion

Fifa has suspended Chad from football with immediate effect, a decision taken by the Bureau of the Fifa Council.

However, the suspension will be reversed as soon as the relevant government decisions have been revoked.

“The Bureau of the Fifa Council decided to suspend the Chadian Football Association (FTFA) with immediate effect due to government interference,” a statement from the Fifa website read.

“The suspension was prompted by the recent decisions of Chadian government authorities to permanently withdraw the powers delegated to the FTFA, establish a national committee for the temporary management of football and seize control of the FTFA’s premises.

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“The suspension will be lifted once the relevant government decisions have been repealed and the FTFA and its management, led by president Moctar Mahamoud Hamid, have confirmed to Fifa that the FTFA premises are again under its control.”

In December 2020, Fifa had disregarded a request from the country’s ministry of sports to dissolve the Chadian Football Federation.

On March 10, the minister for youth and sports released a statement to prevent the FTFA from performing its obligatory duties due to a reported dispute between both parties.

That saw Les Sao disqualified from the Africa Cup of Nations qualification race, just a few days prior to their fixtures against Namibia and Mali, although they sat at the base of Group A.

“Following the withdrawal of the FTF's approval by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Chad, Caf has decided to disqualify the Chad national team from the qualifiers for the Total Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021,” the Caf statement read.

“Consequently, scheduled qualifier matches between Namibia (match 106) and Mali (match 130) for Total Afcon 2021 are cancelled.

“In line with Article 61 read together with Article 64 of the Caf Regulations, Chad is considered a loser of both matches against Namibia and Mali."

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