Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:08:27 +0000
By MICHAEL MIYOBA
ANDREW Kamanga’s reign as president of FAZ has been positive, says Zambia Football Fans Association (ZFFA) general secretary Katwizi Chawezi.
Chawezi said despite some bottlenecks here and there, generally the two years Kamanga has been at the helm of FAZ, Zambia made history by successfully hosting and winning its maiden under-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Nation sports in Lusaka Chawezi said that the Kamanga executive had been transparent in announcing gate takings unlike the previous executives.
He noted that lower division clubs and women’s teams had benefited from the kit distribution programme which has seen more than 200 lower division clubs receiving jerseys and soccer balls from FAZ.
“Kamanga has been in office for under two years and honours have come under his leadership. Talk about the successful hosting of the under-20 AfCON and COSAFA tournament last year, FAZ was on top of things. That needs recommendation,
“Under Kamanga’s administration Zambia won the COSAFA under-17 for the first time. It was historical and the triumph by the under-20 who qualified for the 2017 South Korea World Cup where Zambia reached the quarter finals is another positive result.
Chawezi said the boys were exposed and were playing high level football in Europe, adding that Zambia produced the second CAF young player of the year in Patson Daka.
He said however that there was need for FAZ to stop relying on government support because it had the potential to generate its own income which can be used to pay players to end delays in giving national team players their allowances after tournaments.
“FAZ has failed to arrange friendly games with strong opponents in recent past despite having utilised the FIFA calendar. The association also failed to organise good preparations for the national team ahead of the CHAN tournament in Morocco where Zambia was eliminated in the quarter final stage,” Chawezi said.
Chawezi said that FAZ also failed to supply replica jerseys.
“We saw when FAZ signed a deal with Mafro and Kappa, we did not see genuine replica jerseys on the market and due to that, FAZ lost a lot of revenue,
“That is why we as fans demanded for accountability of the CoPa jersey as it has the potential to help FAZ raise finances which can be used for the growth of football if handled well,” he added.
Chawezi urged Kamanga and his executive to listen to people’s advice because the failures recorded could be corrected if the association sought advice from experienced administrators.
