By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

THE Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) has said money given to the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) by Government should go through them as the country’s supreme sports body for easy supervision.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Sports, SCZ stated that just as was the case with any other association where money was channelled through them, so should be the case with FAZ to make it easy to supervise all associations.
Responding to questions from Committee chairperson Elijah Mukuma, SCZ acting general secretary, Innocent Chalabesa stated that the sports authority was not always in control of the money given to FAZ as it was given directly from the Ministry of Sports.
He admitted this situation was causing problems from other affiliates because the money given to FAZ should go through SCZ as was the case with other associations.
“Moneys to associations should go through us (SCZ). This will also give us the power in terms of being the supervisor of these associations. Sports Council should be empowered in this area and this includes FAZ.
Also making his submission, SCZ board member Haroon Ghumra said that the relationship between SCZ and the NOC was poor and needs to be improved.
Ghumra, who led the SCZ team to the Parliamentary Committee, said the two bodies were important to sports development but that they do not cooperate well.
“To be honest and speaking very frankly, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Sports Council of Zambia do not cooperate too well. We have seen that we need to work more closely together in order to improve performance of sport in the country,” Ghumra said.
He said sports development was important and the need for the two bodies to look at themselves as key partners was equally important and should be enhanced.
Ghumra said soon, the two bodies would be sitting down to look at how they work better for the development of the sport.
A day earlier, NOC through president Miriam Moyo stated that SCZ and NOC were overlapping their roles in being the supervisors of various affiliate associations.
She said that while the NOC has about 25 affiliate associations, the SCZ had 43 and it was cardinal that lines were drawn in order to get the best out of each body.