THE story of Chipolopolo defender Chris Munthali’s contract with Power Dynamos and his move across the road to Nkana has been weighing heavily on my mind, and has left me baffled.
It is a horribly disturbing matter which brings to mind the several issues of players like late Dennis Lota and most recently Emmanuel Mbola, who signed two contracts at the same time and ended up suspended.
A refresh on this one is that Munthali, a Power player, allegedly signed for cross town rivals Nkana at the turn of the year, because his contract had expired on December 31, 2015.
The Nkana announcement of Munthali’s capture sparked a war between the two sides, who anyway do not like each other with Power claiming the player was in breach as he was still contracted till the end of 2016.
Munthali, who seems not to be sure of what he wants, has rejected Power’s claim saying he is fully aware of his contractual obligations and the contract he has at home is clear about the expiry date and Power do not own him anymore.
Power then claimed there was a forgery on the contract Munthali was brandishing.
This is a serious allegation bordering on imprisonment especially that there is money involved in these contracts.
Just how can a copy of a contract have different details and it hurts because I thought Zambia had had enough of such and should have learnt something by now.
Maybe it’s time the clubs became more transparent about these contracts and while they may want to hide the emoluments bit, it is important that every club gets to have a websites where they will state when each player’s contract starts and ends.
This will stop all the unnecessary embarrassing situations and suspensions to players who, anyway, are coerced into these moves and signings.
The last time I checked, the issue of a fully functional media office and website were some of the minimum requirement s under the Club Licensing the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is undertaking.
These levels of transparency will stop some schoolboy blunders we have just witnessed here and which may get worse as more information comes out.
And just some bit of information to the people involved in this, the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has suspended three officials from all football activities and also reported them to FIFA over player transfers.
Two officials from league champions SC Vipers and from the FUFA office erroneously sold Joseph Mpande Mbolimbo to what they are calling ‘a team in Asia’.
The key word is erroneous and this is where our officials need to be wary of implications and possible punishment so that such silly happenings cannot happen again.
This also reminds me of how Patrick Ngoma was sold, a mater that could have had some officials suspended.
I sign off here and wish the Chipolopolo and Munthali well at the ongoing CHAN tournament where I am sure as you read Zambia has sailed through to the quarterfinals.
For comments write to shamsmuzo@gmail.com