By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
OUTGOING Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) general secretary Ponga Liwewe says politics is hampering the growth of the sport.
Speaking to South Africa Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC) sport in South Africa, Liwewe observed that African football administration was still at the stage were people fight for power yet they had no plans to grow the sport.
He said the politics of the game was causing progressive minds not stay long in football as they were always people fighting against good ideas.
“It is quite a frustration for African football. If you look the teams in the last few years that have played at the World, you will hear of non payment of allowances, people fighting for this and that. The coaches and players are at war. Those are some of the things holding back the African game,” Liwewe said.
He said Africa would be unstoppable once it worked on the administrative part of football as the continent was endowed with abundant talent.
Liwewe said the African environmental is too political and it was time it took the route of the European way of commercialising the sport in order to yield results.
“We need more of a commercial environment, to allow growth, to allow revenue to flow in. but I think our African game is still at a stage where people are fighting for power and not really having a plan when they get into power,” Liwewe said.
Liwewe announced he would leave FAZ at the end of May after serving the association for two years a period that was full of infighting from members of the association.
But he was quick to mention there were also good times during the same period in which Zambia won the Under-20 Africa Cup.
“It’s been a time of good things. We won the Under-20 Africa Cup. But there has also been a lot of internal issues within the football fraternity. It was mixed in a way but we believe two years was enough for us to leave a good platform with a good young team. We shown more transparency and good governance for more sponsors to come in,” he said.

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