By Ndinawe Simpelwe –

ZAMBIA Football Coaches Association (Zafca) has come out in defence of under-fire Power Dynamos coach Tenant Chilumba describing the ultimatum handed to him by the executive as superfluous and coming too early.
But Power chairperson Gilbert Simakoloyi has defended the executive saying the meeting with the technical bench was not a witch-hunt meant to fire anyone.
Zafca vice-chairperson Lewis Shambulo said it was too early in the season to be giving out ultimatums and warned the action would just add pressure on the coach and the team.
After back to back defeats to Nchanga Rangers and Zesco United, the Power management met with the technical bench to chart the way forward, demanding that the team wins the next tie against Red Arrows or get an ultimatum.
In an interview, Shambulo observed that three games into a new season were too early for any executive to start panicking on the performance of a coach.
He said club managements should realise that the league had become competitive and every team was performing well.
“They are actually adding more pressure on the team. Everyone will now start to panic because of these meetings and ultimatums they are giving them. What they need to do is to encourage the coach and the players.
“There is no coach who wants to lose games. Everyone wants to win but we should also understand that the league has become competitive. You can lose at anytime and the best is to accept the results and not add pressure on the team,” Said Shambulo.
But Simakoloyi said the situation was calm at Power Dynamos with the coach working freely without any pressure.
He urged the fans and the club supporters to remain calm because the coach was in charge and no decision had been made regarding his future.
Simakoloyi however, admitted that the management met after the two straight defeats to help the technical bench find a solution to the poor start.
“What we had was a regular meeting but of course, it slanted towards the two losses we suffered. There is nothing new with the meeting we had and people are just speculating that we wanted to fire the coach.
“Actually we were the first to realise it was early in the season to start losing like this, that’s why we wanted to meet and find a way of helping the team. The meeting was not as a result of panicking, no one is panicking and the coach is still at the helm,” Simakoloyi said.
He said if it means giving Chilumba the chop, it will the contract that would determine that because he signed a performance-based contract.