By SANDRA MWILA –
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga has condemned the fans for booing the Chipolopolo in an international friendly against Ethiopia at woodlands stadium on Saturday.
And football administrator Simataa Simataa said the fans showed bad attitude and should learn to manage their frustrations better.
Kamanga said in an interview yesterday that the fans actions were ‘extremely unreasonable’ and that demands should be realistic.
He said the challenges being faced by the national team are not being caused by coach Wedson Nyirenda but the failure to build on after the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) triumph.
“Fans should learn to be patriotic and support the national team and give the coach chance to deliver. The coach has performance targets and so far, so good, we are not that bad but FAZ has not folded its arms,” Kamanga said.
Kamanga revealed that steps will soon be taken to strengthen the technical bench and the technical committee will met this Tuesday.
“Let us allow the coach to do his work but we are also taking steps to strengthen the technical bench. We believe adjustments need to be made. The technical committee will meet the coach on Tuesday to review the performance,” Kamanga said.
He said the idea of having friendly games is to allow the coach to asses’ players and try out new formations.
“It’s unfortunate that fans don’t understand the importance of the friendly, for me, I have seen improvements in the team. We performed well against Swaziland,” Kamanga said.
Kamanga said it was unrealistic for fans to demand for Nyirenda’s sacking for drawing in a friendly game.
“Some demands fans call for are unrealistic, they want the coach to call Patson (Daka) or Fashion (Sakala) for COSAFA, CHAN or a friendly game, they don’t understand that those players can’t play in CHAN because they are based outside Zambia or can only be available on FIFA dates,” Kamanga said.
He further challenged the coach to cast his net wide in selecting players for developmental tournaments.
Kamanga said the solution to the club-versus-country row was long term because clubs did not also want to comprise the competitiveness of the league.
“It’s up to the coach to cast his net wide, he has over 500 players from the league to select from. Look at what happened for COSAFA, Zesco and Zanaco players were unavailable and players like Justin Shonga and Brain Mwila were identified and did well,” Kamanga said
Simataa said Nyirenda should be given the same resources, respect and resolve that is given to an expatriate coach when in charge.
“Fans should learn to manage their frustrations and emotions, the attitude they should during the training match (against Ethiopia) was poor. Who said Ethiopia is a push over team?” Simataa asked.
He said it was unrealistic to expect 100 percent performance from players that played league games on Wednesday and feature in the national team on Saturday.
“The same institution that organises friendlies is the same that manages the league. I saw no reason why the league games could not have been postponed. Players from Zanaco and Zesco were reporting to camp on Thursday,” Simataa said.
He emphasised that Nyirenda should be given the same respect and resources as an expatriate coaches.