By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has given Division One Zone One outfit City of Lusaka one last chance to put its house in order before facing disciplinary action.
Two factions, both claiming to represent City of Lusaka have thrown the club into chaos and the move resulted into the team failing to fulfil two consecutive fixtures.
This was after they failed to agree which faction was supposed to field a team.
FAZ asked the two factions, one representing club majority shareholder Diego Cassili and the other one representing the community headed by Justin Zulu, to form an interim committee that would harmonise all the problems and come up with one team.
During a meeting held on Thursday with the interim committee headed by Kaitano Chungu, it was resolved that the club be given one last chance to agree on one team that would be playing for the club.
FAZ deputy general secretary Adrian Kashala confirmed that the association would be left with no option but to take disciplinary action if the confusion at City continued.
“We have given them another chance. It is now up to them because if they fail to resolve their problems we will discipline them. So we will wait and see what happens between now and Wednesday when they play their next match,” Kashala said.
Kashala said FAZ did not want to rush into banning the team because they had to put the interests of the players in mind.
He further said FAZ could not recognise any of the two factions as it was an internal issue which should be decided by the parties involved.
Kashala said FAZ gave City 120 days to resolve all their problems but could not allow the club to continue forfeiting matches because it was affecting the players and the league.
City managed to play its first game of the season when they lost to Circuit City before the confusion emerged in the next game at home against Young Buffaloes when two teams pitched up to play the match which resulted into match officials to call it off and the hosts lost three points.
The club again forfeited their second game when the two teams again travelled to Katete to face Katete Rangers and match officials were again forced to call off the game.
Chung, who attended the meeting, said all what remained was to heed to FAZ’s directive because the club risked being banned from the league.
He said other than trying to avoid a FAZ disciplinary action, the rules stated that if a team forfeited five consecutive matches it had to be banned from the league.
“We have no option at the moment. We just have to find a solution and come up with one team. As chairperson of the interim committee, I have no problem with the directive from FAZ. I hope the two factions will be eager to work together,” Kaitano said.
City’s next match is at home against Lusaka Tigers on Wednesday after it was postponed from Sunday.