I aM still talking about the politics of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) even when it has been over two weeks since the elections were held to usher in a new executive.
After the election results were announced, a first glance at the new executive line up told a story of a strange voting pattern and obviously this meant that there were various camps in the executive which meant that it would only be a matter of time before a rift developed because from president Andrew Kamanga’s camp, just two people managed to win the elections, him inclusive.
The matter of appointing the general secretary was always going to be the first matter of everyone’s interest as Kamanga’s right-hand man Simataa Simataa is one everyone knew was expecting to become the new FAZ general secretary but with the several misunderstandings he had with the FAZ executive, most of whom are still in office, this was clearly going to be a problem.
The statement by vice-president Richard Kazala that Simataa had not been appointed general secretary because he was still facing numerous cases with FAZ and FIFA may be looked at as an abrogation of his powers but this was a well-calculated move.
It’s good that the executive has sat down and come up with a solution that seems to be pleasing all and that is where my interest is. FAZ finally has checks and balances.
The previous complaints about FAZ which even led to the resignation of four committee members including then, vice-president, Emmanuel Munaile was the lack of checks and balances at Football House.
The move by Kazala to make public the issue of the appointment could never have been made public if it was mere speculation, it’s the vice-president we are talking about here. At least now people will be able to speak on what they see wrong and they will be able to fight any wrongs from within and not just stay quiet.
Former treasurer Kelvin Mutafu decided to keep quiet about the corruption allegations he later made hours before resigning, that kind of silence led to Nike walking out on Zambia.
The happenings in the FAZ will definitely bring checks and balances in the running of football and foster transparency. Like the saying goes, one cannot be the judge and jury or having the cake and eat it.
This is what has been demanded from FAZ for a long time and the elections have brought in a self-checking mechanism as we will all be able to state how the new general secretary was appointed because the public does not have details of how the former general secretary was appointed.
We, at least know there is nothing new about advertising for the post of general secretary, Paul Simukoko was one person employed after the position was advertised and his performance was not disappointing.
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I will spare a few lines for Mr Issa Hayatou and his people at CAF. Just what were you thinking congesting fixtures in this manner? Clubs that make it into CAF games have the best players who should naturally make the national team.
But the CAF comes up with a calendar of three games in seven days for players for both club and country and worse off, have to hop from one part of Africa to another on a continent that has the worst flight connections in the world.
Modern football management talks about a recovery period and with such a congested fixture, the quality of football will be poor and then the television rights from Sport-Five owned by one of Hayatou’s relatives, at their highest pricing. This is theft from the millions of Africans who pay to watch these games either on television or on the pitch. I repeat, this is theft.
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