I will this week dedicate the column to the reactions received in the mailbag, the first coming from Brian Chola.
Hi Elias, I had serious difficulties to comprehend the submission that Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) general secretary George Kasengele gave the Parliamentary Committee on Sport and Youth.
It was so sad to read a chief executive officer of FAZ saying it was disheartening to watch the local league. Surely, if he can say that what about us fans who throng to these stadia week in and out.
Reading the story that your able paper published on Thursday April 23 left me sad because I was expecting FAZ to tell the nation what it intended to do to stop this free-fall decline of our game.
How does someone in-charge of our football say that it remains a huge wonder as to how Zambia even managed to win the 2012 Africa Cup because the low standards of football in the local league were responsible for the deficiencies being exposed at the Chipolopolo.
“Our local league standards are really poor. It is no wonder that the only Africa Cup title we have was won was in 2012 and not way back when football was producing a lot of quality players with good investment from the corporate world especially the mines,” Kasengele said.
How does FAZ intend to attract sponsorship if they can issue out alarming statements like that? That submission made by Kasengele has the potential of scaring away even the few sponsors on board.
This is why people are calling for the delinking of the league from the association so that it can be run professionally.
Running the league separately as is the case in South Africa and Nigeria will help improve its standards unlike putting the burden on the association.
Lack of cup competitions has also greatly affected our game as the Barclays Cup is not inclusive of all the teams in the Zambian Premier League save for a few clubs while the majority are left out.
While the job done by Barclays Bank Zambia is commendable, there is need for the sponsor to see how best the competitions can be improved.
But other companies should come on board and see how best they can partner with FAZ in ensuring that more cup games are introduced to help broaden the competition base.
So in future, FAZ should learn to defend its league because what is happening is because of the policies it has put in place that has seen our teams perform so badly at continental stage. I end here.
Thanks Brian for that contribution and let’s keep interacting on eliaschipepo@gmail.com or elias.chipepo@times.co.zm. Wishing you all a wonderful sporting weekend.