Tue, 15 Aug 2017 13:11:27 +0000
By Michael Miyoba
FAZ is looking into the possibility of coming up with new regulations to guide on how many foreign nationals a local team can acquire, says communication manager Desmond Katongo.
Katongo said currently there was no law which restricted the number of foreign players a team can acquire.
Katongo said that was why the association wanted to come up with new regulations to protect the development of football in Zambia.
The MTN/FAZ Super league has continued to attract players from different parts of Africa with four foreign players confirmed having signed for Zesco United while two players from Ghana and Burkina Faso have joined defending champions Zanaco FC.
Katongo however noted that FAZ was proud to see foreign based players coming to play in the local league as they added value to the local league. “The influx of foreign based players from around the African region adds value to our league. For any league to develop, you need massive competition.
“We were used to seeing our players going abroad in the recent past but that has changed. This is an indication that our league is strong and doing well in the region. It is a plus to have players from abroad wanting to come and play football in Zambia,” Katongo said.
“As FAZ we are also aware of the fact that we need to protect our league. As people feel the influx of foreign players will disturb our grassroots level of developing the game in our country but at the same time we need to take some positives from the arrival of foreign based players,
“We’ve not had a law that that restricts the number of foreign based players a team is supposed to acquire and that’s something the association is looking into,” Katongo said.
Katongo also urged local players to work hard to be able to compete with foreign nationals. He however cautioned teams wishing to acquire foreign players to follow the right procedure to avoid being sanctioned by the association.
“Our emphasis still remains the same. Get the right papers, follow the right procedure, provide the right papers because those clubs which will not be able to follow the right procedure in acquiring foreign players will be punished,” Katongo said.
