THE manner in which the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has sacked coach George Lwandamina without giving convincing reasons cannot pass without a comment.
FAZ technical committee chairperson, Boniface Mwamelo and technical director, Honour Janza have, through the Press, been giving conflicting statements on the matter, making me smell a rat at the Football House.
By the way, in case you missed the story, Lwandamina was dropped as Under-20 national coach but Mwamelo contended the matter through the Press that Janza misled the nation when he announced the relieving of the veteran trainer without his consent as technical committee chairperson.
But Janza has, however, come out strongly telling his colleague that he does not report to him and that he should join the big ship instead of rocking as a loner in a canoe.
Janza further tells Mwamelo that he did not make an individual decision but with the support of FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya and the general secretary, George Kasengele.
It is mind-boggling as to why FAZ didn’t call for a briefing or issue a statement on the dropping of Lwandamina like they have done in the past whenever there are new developments in the soccer fraternity.
From the tone of both Janza and Mwamelo, no one should blame me for concluding that there is a problem at Football House which needs to be sorted out immediately before the sport suffers.
With the coming of the elections in 2016, I would not be surprised to see that these war of words are aimed at individuals positioning themselves to contest or dislodging others.
Mind you, there are serious engagements such as the Morocco 2015 Africa Cup qualifiers and the Senegal 2015 Africa Youth Championship which require collective efforts to ensure good results.
I wonder why the two senior FAZ officials should go to war in the media when the matter could have been dealt with administrative.
It is however unfortunate that a coach of Lwandamina’s calibre with a proven record of moulding youth talent could be dropped in that manner without convincing reasons, I am not campaigning but sympathising with him.
The matter came at a time when the Under-20 team is preparing for the Senegal 2015 Africa Youth Championship second round, first leg qualifier against Mozambique.  FAZ is a big institution that should not stoop so low and wash dirty linen in public, but lead by example.
In this case, necessary action should be taken against faulting officers unlike only applying the law to a few individuals who are facing life bans.
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