The embattled football association last week appointed top Swiss lawyers W’Law, Weber and Wicki as their “mail recipients” and have since filed Zifa’s defence. According to the Swiss law the “mail recipients” should be domiciled five kilometers from the Supreme Court in Zurich.
In their claim, Kentaro has not yet “quantified” how much they want from the gate takings for the match between the Selecao and Zimbabwe. The match netted US$760 000 which went towards offsetting a loan borrowed from a local bank. The loan was granted to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to pay for the Samba Boys’ appearance fee of US$750 000 for the historic June 2 match last year.
Ralph Maganga, the Zifa lawyer said Kentaro had filed a notice of their claim against the football association without the quantum.
“We have appointed the W’Law, Weber and Wicki in Zurich as our mail recipients. We appointed them on March 21,” Maganga said.
“We have in turn submitted our defence saying that then chief executive officer (Henrietta Rushwaya) was not entitled to go into the agreement with Kentaro according to the association’s constitution. That contract should have been signed by the Zifa president.” Kentaro the management company of the Brazil World Tour went into agreement with Zifa because it is the governing body of football in the country under the jurisdiction of FIFA. However, ZTA were the organisers of the match.
According to the final match staging agreement, a copy in possession of Standardsport the parties agreed that the Brazil would get an appearance fee of US$750 000 to be paid in two installments. The first installment of US$375 000 was made on May 25 2010, two days after the signing of the agreement, while the last installment of US$375 000 was paid a day prior to the big match on June 2.
“Kentaro will retain ticket revenue generated from the match and Kentaro must approve all ticket prices and there must be community programme for a minimum of number 1 000 fans to attend the match at no cost,” said the agreement.
The contract also noted that “For the avoidance of doubt, any revenues arising out of the exploitation of the broadcast rights solely belong to Kentaro”.
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Kentaro also retained the merchandise rights and the organisers also agreed to charter a plane for Brazil who where in South Africa for the World Cup.The 70-men delegation including the squad was on full insurance paid by the organisers was also booked into a top hotel and feted like Kings.The agreement was signed by Rushwaya on behalf of Zifa and Stephen Huber on behalf of Kentaro on May 27 2010.
However, ZTA disputes that it agreed to cede the rights of gate revenue to Ken taro and claims that the agreement was tampered with. Kentaro has not responded to the allegations.
Magana said in the event that Zifa lose their case in the Zurich court and they will claim back the money from ZTA.“ZTA has said we have nothing to do with that match. In the event we lose the case we will recover the money from ZTA,” Maganga said.
