By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

HOW times change!
For 15 years, Mufulira Blackpool were a forgotten club fighting to stay alive in the FAZ Division One League, but upon promotion to the Super Division at the end of last year, they are enjoying top life.
Already, they have had their first elite league game televised all across Africa on SuperSport.
Sadly, they lost that game to Lusaka Dynamos but they did not embarrass themselves in terms of performance and did not get daunted in their resolve.
This weekend, they host Nkana in a match to be televised again across Africa, with the only downside being that it will not be from John Yumba Kachofa, their small immaculate stadium that has been done up for their Super League football season appearance.
It is happy times for not just at Blackpool, but also for the town of Mufulira which will for the first time in 16 years host two Super Division sides.
This will guarantee a Super League game every weekend for the 125, 000 people of this border mining town.
Fans will now be reminded that two of Zambia’s greatest footballers in Kalusha Bwalya and Alex Chola were products of Blackpool.
But Blackpool have not enjoyed the fame that their cross town rivals ‘Mighty’ Mufulira Wanderers have and when they got demoted to Division One at the end of the 2000 season, they had just become one of those teams in Division One.
They were a team that would not get demoted further and also a team that would not get promoted, but would be there to provide stiff opposition and sometimes play the spoiler in the promotion race.
But last year, Blackpool put up a strong and sustained fight for promotion and on the last day of the league posted a huge win that meant they overtook rivals Kalulushi Modern Stars on goal difference.
So just what happened in 2015 could not occur in the last 15 years for this Mufulira Municipal Council-sponsored team whose history dates back several decades ago.
“Belief! That’s all that happened; we made players believe in their abilities. And again we want to make them believe they are a good side and do not deserve Division One football,” club chairperson, Isaac Mwale said.
Mwale’s football career dates back to the mid-1990s when he was a Kitwe United player before going on to be chairperson for three clubs which are all under the various councils sides in the country.
He worked for Kitwe City Council and the got transferred to Chipata in 1998 where he rose to chairperson of the council side and director of finance for the council.
Later he got transferred to Mazabuka and led Mazabuka United, and then in 2012 he was moved to Mufulira where he assumed the chairmanship of the club in 2013.
“After I saw the team, I knew they were good and just needed to be psyched and that is all we did. You can imagine then that allowances were really low and sometimes they would come late.
“But we told them they are at a club with a very rich and proud history, that they are really good and the only problem is that they think some other teams are better than them and thankfully, they responded and here we are,” Mwale said.
They obliged by being a team with the second best frontline in Division One north, beaten only by Lumwana Radiants and also the second best defence overtaken only by Kalulushi Modern Stars, but they finished with the fewest defeats at five.
Blackpool has rewarded the players with increased allowances and other emoluments which are competitive with the happenings in the Super League and this should push players to want to do more in the top flight.
But Zambian football has proved that there is a gap between the Super and Division One football. A gap that could tell there is need for another league between the two.
Mwale reckons that he is aware of that problem and it was why his executive has given the team a realistic target of finishing right in the middle of the table as a higher target and avoiding relegation as a lower end target.
“We know we cannot be champions. And we are sticking to that but that means we want to finish in the middle of the table. Ultimately, we should avoid relegation back to Division One. We have worked so hard to come this far and we cannot go backwards by getting relegated.
“We, from next year, have to start planning on titles. So right now, we do not even have to entertain relegation talk,” he said.
A SuperSport crew has been to inspect their stadium and asked for a stand for the television team to be mounted, a move that has already been done and the stadium ready to go.
He said the club feels indebted that none of the players left them but that with the demands of the top flight football, it brought in a few players to help coach Weston Mumba get through the arid Super Division.
To accommodate those that that were brought in, Blackpool had to release some aging players as well as some young ones to give them game time and club is now looking forward to the following season.
How they will navigate the season remains to be seen.
FACT BOX
Name: Mufulira Blackpool
Emblem: Lion between inside diamond shape
Established:  1937
Stadium: John Yumba Kachofa
Capacity: 5, 000
Sponsors: Mufulira Municipal Council
Chairperson: Isaac Mwale
Coach:   Weston Mumba
Assistant coach: Anthony Mwango
Captain: Rogers Lwandamina
Colours: Green and Yellow
Honours:  League: Nil
Cup-Castle Cup: 1963, 2nd 1964
Inter-Rhodesia Cup: 2nd 1963
Chibuku Cup: 1973
Champion of Champs: 2nd 1974
Independence Cup: 1976