FIFA clamps down on Yanga

Yanga, this season's Premier League champion, was instructed by the world football governing body in October 2022 to pay the side’s former head coach Luc Eymael outstanding fees for unfair dismissal. "We take due note that in its correspondence, the creditor informs us that the respondent, Young Africans SC, has not complied with its financial obligations following the decision of FIFA," read a letter signed by FIFA's disciplinary coordinator, Pablo Arias.

"In this regard, we wish to inform the parties that a ban on registering new players internationally has been implemented by FIFA as of today."

"Moreover, and following this aforementioned decision, the respondent's member association (TFF) is requested to immediately implement on the respondent, Young Africans Sc, a ban from signing new players at the national level."

The ban comes after FIFA, in October 2022, ordered the Tanzania football heavyweights to pay their former head coach Eymael $148,000 (346m/-) for unfair dismissal.

The club then allegedly contacted Eymael to accept the payment in installments, despite the FIFA order stating it needed to be an immediate lump sum.

Eymael is said to have accepted the deal in good faith as he looked to ease the situation and was not having to fork out the full amount.

“I told him the proposal was dangerous, maybe he liked the club and accepted to receive it in a few installments, so he signed the settlement agreement,” his lawyer Semeria Antoine said.

The first payment was on October 31, 2022, for $20,000, and after that, it was scheduled for each month on November 30 with an agreement of $33,000 until the 28th of February.

“The club paid with many delays, only the first two installments, the first came on November 16 and the second one at the end of December when the deadline was November 30,” he added.

“The third one was not initially paid but eventually came just before I referred the case to FIFA and after that, they stopped all payments. So on February 3, I referred the case and they still have $99,000 unpaid with a $5,000 penalty for the delay.”

On March 7, the case was officially referred to FIFA to certify that the club didn’t respect the settlement agreement and to condemn the club to pay the full amount plus the penalty.

FIFA then sent the decision condemning the club to pay Luc Eymael the sum of $66,000 with a $5,000 penalty with a 45-day deadline to pay since the notification.

“They didn’t pay, so I wrote to FIFA [again] on June 19, 2023, to ask to certify the club didn’t pay during this period of 45 days and to order the ban of registration during the windows,” he confirmed.

“After that I received something, to confirm that FIFA communicated with the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to inform all parties that Young Africans SC didn’t comply with the financial obligations following the decision of FIFA and, in this regard, they informed the party of registering new players, internationally has been implemented and the TFF have to watch if the club breaks this ban.”

The former AFC Leopards coach and Yanga parted ways after the tactician is said to have referred to the fans racially.

This will be a big blow for Yanga, who are just coming off an impressive campaign both at the national and continental levels.

Yanga enjoyed an impressive 2022/2023 campaign after clinching the Premier League title while they also reached the CAF Confederation Cup final, where they lost to USM Alger over two legs.

Yanga will now need to pay him in full or the ban will remain in effect and this website understands the club has made no official communication with Eymael’s lawyer and FIFA since the ruling was passed down on Sunday morning.