.KAMBWILI

By GRACE CHAILE –

SPORTS Minister Chishimba Kambwili has said Zambian clubs will only start performing better in CAF inter club competitions if massive investment was put in the league to attract foreign players.
Kambwili said in parliament on Wednesday evening that he was happy with the performance of the Zambian Premier League at the moment looking at the current investment that has been put in.
But the Minister said he was confident that the league can perform even better if there was massive investment for the country to start attracting foreign players.
“Our friends are able to attract foreign players making their leagues and teams to be competitive unlike us who utmost pay players around K1, 500.  This also leads to the Zambian teams performing badly in the continental competitions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kambwili said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with FIFA aimed at promoting sports in rural areas where competitions would be held to come up with players to be recommended to the national teams.
Kambwili said FIFA would finance 75 per cent of the budget while the Zambian Government will cover the remaining 25 percent.
“All these concerns of taking sports to rural areas will be addressed in the new sports policy where we also intend to introduce Komboni sports aimed at tapping talent in communities and rural areas,” he said
During a question and answer session, Kalabo Central MP Chiinga Miyutu wanted to know how FAZ intended to use the $125, 000 that was donated by CAF in 2013 and if at all any of the money will be used for talent identification in rural areas.
In response Kambwili  said the money was not released by CAF as it would have helped the association fund the various youth teams.