By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) general secretary George Kasengele says watching the Zambian local league is disheartening.
Kasengele said 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.

. Kasengele

Kasengele said this when he appeared before the Elijah Mukuma chaired Parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports.
“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,” he said.
Kasengele said that the poor football levels being played were as a result of low levels of investment in football by the various companies trading in Zambia.
He said a look at some big teams in the country that have a name in Zambian football like ‘Mighty’ Mufulira Wanderers and Nkana shows how badly they are struggling and that should tell a story on what has happened since privatisation.
Kasengele said that the uninspiring level of play in the local league has contributed to the country failing to supply enough quality players for the Chipolopolo.
“Mr Chairman, the top scorer in the league in the last two years is a striker called Ronald Kampamba but he is not even a regular at the senior national team. And again if you look at the goals he has scored in the two years, its 16 and 15 and honestly that is not inspiring.
In the years back, we used to have Godfrey Chitalu, Ashios Melu and Paul Chellah scoring an average of 30 to 40 goals every season. It is a sad situation but what can we do, he (Kampamba) is the best we have right now,” he said.
When asked by the Parliamentary Committee members on whether the top Scorers’ award should be capped with a certain number of goals, Kasengele said it would be an unfair move though some more creative incentives need to be put in place to get the players score more goals.