By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –

ZAMBIA Football Coaches Association (ZAFCA) president Patrick Kangwa has said the country is not short of qualified coaches who can deliver results at the helm of national teams.
Kangwa said this in response to Sports Minister Chishimba Kambwili, who on Tuesday asked the visiting German Parliamentarian Sport Committee to help find a coach from the Bundesliga to drill the Chipolopolo because Zambia does not have a qualified coach.
The Minister said he would appreciate a world class coach to be attached to the Chipolopolo and even to be appointed as head coach as the country did not have qualified coaches because most were just acquiring their CAF C licenses.
But Kangwa said in an interview yesterday that the country was adequately equipped with highly qualified coaches that had the capacity and potential to perform well when given the opportunity.
He said the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) had put in place proper mechanisms that aim at building the capacity of local coaches, a development that would see most of them attain higher qualifications.
“We do have enough material in place in terms of the coaches in the country and as ZAFCA we have confidence in them and all they just need is support. Zambia has a number of good coaches and I think as Coaches, we have a responsibility to perform well because that’s what counts,” Kangwa said.
Kangwa said if any expatriate coach from the elite European football leagues was to be engaged, they should be attached to train the local coaches.
“International coaching is not all about qualification but it’s about researching and that’s what individual coaches must be doing to beef up the knowledge they have acquired.
All we need is support in terms of capacity building and I think engaging an expatriate to lecture our locals would be most welcome as opposed to putting them in charge of the national team,” he said.
Hector Chilombo and Chris Kaunda have qualified the Under 20 and 17 teams to the Africa Youth and Junior Championships respectively while Honour Janza is a win away from securing qualification for the Chipolopolo to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals.