By ADRIAN MWANZA –
THE FAZ will at the end of this season start the process of de-linking the football administration from the league in order to enhance the operation of both institutions.
The de-linking has been a long-standing cry from the Zambian football administrators with its ugly head rearing itself this season on two fronts involving a corporate war between MTN Zambia and Vodafone Zambia as well as the players’ registration mess.
Those calling for the de-linking have argued that the FAZ is overburdened with tedious role of running the leagues as well as football administration which includes the national teams and thereby led to the several failures.
FAZ president Andrew Kamanga said yesterday at a briefing at Football House that the separation of the two bodies will make the various FAZ leagues more attractive for sponsorship opportunities, including some that are already on the FAZ table.
He however, did not give a detailed roadmap or deadline as to when this will be actualised just saying a working committee will be appointed immediately after this season to and provide the implementation timeline.
“It has always been the intention of this executive committee to de-link the leagues from the Football Association of Zambia. This is standard and best-practice worldwide and Zambia should be no exception,” he said.
He said with this new structure, the league will function in a fully professional manner with little disturbance from FAZ activities and that this will create a multiple sponsorship opportunities for corporate partners to associate with the national teams at all levels.
The Association will focus on managing all national teams as well as provide regulatory oversight in line with the statues and regulations.
And on the tiff over the league sponsorship and the branding rights, Kamanga said that FAZ looked at the corporate war as an unfortunate and that to avoid a recurrence, they would talk to all stakeholders.
He hinted that the MTN sponsorship will expire at the end of this year and that before its ‘renegotiation’, the FAZ will engage other stakeholders, to get their input as it was critical to structuring a deal that would meet their needs and the current business environment.
He said the FAZ will now be more cautious when signing a new league sponsorship deal in order to avoid scandals like the one it was dealing with involving City of Lusaka football club.
City of Lusaka signed a multi-million kwacha sponsorship deal with Vodafone, which is a bitter and direct rival to MTN, and saw City’s home ground renamed Vodafone-Woodlands Stadium.
The Stadium was further rebranded in in a sea of Vodafone’s red.
This did not sit well with MTN with FAZ throwing the rule book at City over the stadium use for MTN-FAZ league games.
“MTN has exclusive rights in the deal which gave them control over a number of issues but we have realised that there is need to revise this,” said Kamanga as he stopped short of calling the deal irregular.
He explained did not act because the deal is expiring at the end of this year and that they would use the arguments to bargain for an improved deal next time.
“Our partnership (with MTN) will come to the end this year and we are going to renegotiate but obviously all expect that we shall sign a contract that will be fair and beneficial to the clubs,” he said.
Kamanga said the current contract needed to be improved and worked on to avoid future standoffs.
He also said the FAZ will be meeting the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to try to reach an amicable solution.