Sat, 09 Sep 2017 10:54:01 +0000
By Michael Miyoba
THERE is serious mismanagement of football and funds at City of Lusaka football club, a member Mbuna Mwanza has claimed
Mwanza said it was disappointing to see the club struggling in the MTN/FAZ Super division due to mishandling of football affairs at the club.
He said the mismanagement of funds and football affairs in general had the ability to send the premier league outfit into oblivion.
“As a concerned and paid up member of City of Lusaka Football Club I wish to air my grievances on the continued mismanagement of football and financial affairs at the club,
“This concerns the abuse of funds received from SuperSport for the coverage of games as well as monies from MTN as the official sponsors of the FAZ premier league for the year 2017.
“It was sad to note that those funds did not even go into the official club bank account but instead diverted into the account of Forli Limited, a company that is carrying out development projects at the Stadium,” he said.
Mwanza said there was need for management at the club to be transparent in the way they manage the clubs affairs to save it.
“It is also not clear how the funds were used as they run out long before the current soccer season resumed. The maladministration and poor leadership, financial management and inconsistence in the welfare of the players could be a major cause to the current poor performance of the team,” Mwanza said.
He has urged the current City executive led by Chairman Justine Zulu to put the interests of the club first to save it from humiliations in the league.
Meanwhile Zulu says there is no mismanagement of funds at the club.
Zulu said all the funds have been accounted for and will be unveiled to the public at an appropriate meeting.
“There is no misappropriation of funds at City. All the players are paid. Funds have been accounted for and at an appropriate time, the book of accounts will be presented to the members for them to see that we mean well for the club,” Zulu said.
And club secretary General, Christopher Chilongo challenged Mwanza to report to the relevant authorities if he has proof concerning his allegations.
Chilongo said Mwanza being a senior member of the club should be able to dialogue with the executive instead of running to the media.
“Yamoto” have struggled in the MTN/FAZ super division and anchor the league table with 11 points from 25 league games. City will also have to play their home matches away from Woodlands Stadium as they have been banned from playing their home matches from their home ground, Woodlands Stadium.
The Woodlands based super division side also fired coaches on two occasion with the last victim being Hector Chilombo who was replaced by Italian coaches Robalto Landi and Pepe Mecca who have an impossible task of saving the club from being relegated from the super league.
