By GWEN CHIPASULA
at OYDC –
THERE was drama as the 2016 COPA Coca-Cola Schools football tournament wich kicked off yesterday after referees staged a protest over what they termed ‘lack of proper food’.
Afternoon matches were delayed to close to an hour after the referees boycotted to officiate the games after they said they were feed on scones and soft drinks.
“We were only given scones and Cola-Cola drinks, seriously how do you treat people like that? We will only work when proper food is given because the work is not easy,” one of the referees said.
The referees sat out for an hour doing nothing, a situation which only took the tournament coordinator Christopher Sakapumba to interfere for the whistle blowers to go back to work.
Later after Sakapumba was intervened, the referees were aided with some Super Shake.
And when asked what transpired, Sakapumba said that the issue was under control and refused to divulge more information.
“It is just a minor setback and we are handling it,” he said.
On the field of play, champions Chizongwe started on a high note beating Nchelenge 2-0 in their first Group A match played at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.
Steven Tembo scored a brace with coach Thaulo Banda declaring that his boys have come with full force to defend the title.
Other Group A matches saw Ituna Secondary draw 0-0 against Mine Secondary as Kaoma were beaten 2-3.
Lusaka’s Mwavi Secondary School thrashed Muchinga 3-0 with Mathews Mumba scoring a brace as Fedelis Tembo added the third in a Group B tie.
There was also a win for Solwezi in Group B who beat Muchinga 3-0 courtesy of captain Prince Mumba, who scored a brace, and John Ngungila while Linda beat Chifubu 2-1.
By press time, Kaoma were playing Nchelenge with Chizongwe taking on Mine in while Mwavi were playing Chifubu and Solwezi playing Linda.