IT has been about a year now if not more, since the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) started singing about hiring an expatriate coach to drill the Chipolopolo.
Of course there have been several factors that have hindered the progress of this engagement process with the biggest challenge being undoubtedly money issues.
Government has promised to source funds to pay the expatriate coach although there is nothing official yet.
We still wait patiently to hear from the Sports Minister who is yet to inform us on whether the funds have been sourced or still being sourced.
From the look of things and from what we are being told by FAZ, both the Government and the national soccer governing body are set on hiring the long awaited Chipolopolo expatriate coach.
But I keep wondering if the FAZ executive committee has sat to discuss this topical issue.
I think it is important that the executive committee as a team identifies a coach as part of the recruitment process.
It is cardinal that the FAZ leadership and every member of the executive committee has a hand in recruiting the coach other than leaving it to a few people.
A lot of factors have to be considered before the process is finalised and it is my hope that the list of the 17 coaches is scrutinised before the final shortlist.
There is need to know what exactly is required of a coach. Do we want an Italian, German, English, Spanish coach among many? What type of football do we want our Chipolopolo to play, is it the Brazilian, Italian, French or English type not forgetting the Iceland system.
Time is slowly but surely not on FAZ side as the coach has the huge task of building a team that can achieve the impossible dream of qualifying to the Russia 2018 World Cup finals.
With player selection being a far cry for many, it would be expected that this new coach will have time to watch our local league and travel here and about in trying to identify the players that will don the Chipolopolo colours.
But again, having a quality coach will depend much on how much money we shall cough out at the end of the day. As FAZ general secretary Ponga Liwewe said, quality coaches don’t come cheap!
Thus it is the hope of many fans that enough money has been secured so that a credible coach is employed.
Till next week, remember to continue sending those emails to eliaschipepo@gmail.com or elias.chipepo@times.co.zm and catch me on twitter @eliaschipepo.