By SANDRA MWILA –

. KAMANGA

FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga says he will still nominate a name to his executive on whom he feels should take over as the General Secretary of the association despite the interviews held for the position.
And FAZ has also arranged an international friendly match against Togo set for May 27 in preparation for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Guinea Bissau.
Speaking at Football House in Lusaka yesterday, Kamanga insisted he will propose a name of the General Secretary to the executive committee because he was obligated by the FAZ constitution.
Kamanga said that he was the only person the FAZ constitution gives a legal mandate to propose a name of the would-be General Secretary and that come Friday next week, a new General Secretary will be named and hopes the executive committee will support his decision.
“The process of appointing a General Secretary has been ongoing, last week interviews were held and there has been a lot of misinformation and leakages. I want to urge you to read the constitution. It’s only the FAZ president with the legal mandate to propose name of General Secretary to the committee whether through interviews or otherwise.
“I am the only one. And I am the only one authorised by the constitution to propose a name of General Secretary, please underline that I am the only one. The constitution doesn’t allow anyone else apart from the FAZ president,” Kamanga said.
The FAZ got into a mini-riot when the vice-president Richard Kazala issued a strongly worded statement stating Simataa Simataa had not been appointed general secretary because the executive had not sat to consider the appointment.
Kamanga said he will pick a name from the already ongoing process of appointing a General Secretary and failure for him to propose a name will be an abrogation of the constitution.
Asked what step he will take should his proposed name be rejected by executive committee, Kamanga said he is prepared and will deal with the matter.
“I will pick from the process after a report is submitted to me but in an event that my colleagues reject the name I propose, I will deal with it, I am very prepared for that,” Kamanga said.
According to Article 28.1(v) of the FAZ constitution, the president shall propose (the) appointment and/or dismissal of the General Secretary.
Kamanga also denied the FAZ had agreed a deal with Mafro to dress the national team but confirmed the FAZ had been approached by the kit manufacturing company.
He said for now, FAZ will resort to buying kit from Nike before they can find a kit sponsor for the national team.
Kamanga further explained that they had approached Nike to continue as they sponsor but the American sportswear company refused to come back to Zambia after the expiry of the contract in 2014 and have since moved on to Nigeria.
“The issue of us signing with Mafro are just speculations, we have not signed any contract. Mafro approached FAZ in February (previous executive) and when there was new executive in place they made a follow up.
“We have not discussed anything with them, people have accused us of failing to deal get Nike back but Nike has categorically stated that they cannot sign with us now after the contract was not extended in 2014.He said the reason was because Nike has two slots in Africa which at that time was South Africa and Zambia but when the previous executive refused to extend the deal, Nike gave the slot to Nigeria,” Kamanga said.