Fri, 18 Aug 2017 11:03:09 +0000
By Bennie Mundano
PREMIER league side Red Arrows Football Club executive must be replaced because it has failed to steer the team to any success apart from fighting for survival in top-flight football in Zambia, the fans have demanded.
They said because of the state of affairs, it discouraged them as ardent followers of the club.
A group of fans that spoke to the Daily Nation sports yesterday said they have had enough from the current executive which had never brought in any new innovations to make the Zambia Airforce-sponsored side contend for any honours in the past five years.
The fans, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said while Arrows had been blaming the downward spiral of the team’s performance on coaches, some of which had been sacrificed down the line, the problem was with the executive and that the earlier the command realised that, the better.
The fans charged that while teams like Lusaka Dynamos, Napsa Stars, and new-comers Lumwana Radiants had established themselves as among the best teams in the league, Red Arrows has been average performers despite commanding good sponsorship.
They contended that the executive had been failing to buy players but opted to be using the same “tired legs” which had failed to live up to the expectations of the fans.
They said despite their plea to management to consider changing the way the executive ran the club, nothing had happened.
“Do you expect a club that cannot even provide replica jerseys to its fans to succeed? Never!
While other clubs like Lusaka Dynamos are rebranding and responding to new trends in football, our executive is employing the business-as-usual, old-fashioned way of football administration,
“And what you see on the pitch is not the failure of the coaches or the players but the executive,” they said
They said sometimes the players just participated in games under protest, hence the losses.
“We are not even a feared team anymore. We have now become just like any other team where opponents can get points at will and this is why this executive, starting from the chairman to the last person in management, must go because they have failed,” one of the fans said.
They said the Red Arrows’ fan base had dwindled as a result of the executive’s uninspiring way of running football.
“Sometime back, the club used to ferry us to match venues when the team played away. Nowadays, we only watch matches at Nkoloma,
“With Buffaloes, the executive even finds casual jobs for some of their outstanding fans just to maintain the supporters’ numbers but that is not the case here and we are simply tired,” they said
The fans further said that they could not complain to anybody because despite football being a social sport, the executive was using military tactics to silence opposing voices to hide its inefficiencies.
“Even now, if they discover that we talked to you, we will be crucified by tomorrow but whoever told them this is the way they run football misled them and this is killing Red Arrows,” they said.
They appealed to the senior command to take a keen interest in the way the current executive was running football at the club.
Red Arrows are 13th on the log having accumulated 25 points from 21 matches.
Arrows management could not be immediately reached for a comment
