By SANDRA MWILA –
CITY of Lusaka has demanded to be awarded three points for the postponed MTN-FAZ Super League Week 29 clash against champions Zanaco.
The club is demanding for points because their opponents did not show up at the match venue on Sunday including match officials.
This is contained in a letter addressed to Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) general secretary Ponga Liwewe by City secretary general Christopher Chilongo.
“We wish to formally write to your office that as per FAZ Week 29 Fixtures officially circulated our team City of Lusaka Football Club was scheduled to play Zanaco Football Club on Sunday 1st October 2017 at Sunset Stadium starting at 15.00 hours,” Chilongo said.
It is believed that Football House sent correspondence to the two teams around 20:30 hours on Saturday informing them about the postponement because Zanaco had four players with the national team.
“Accordingly our team was camped and travelled to Sunset Stadium on the material day and indeed entered the stadium, warned up for more than 15 minutes and was ready to play. To our surprise we did not see any match officials or opponents,” he said.
Chilongo said, as expected, City should have been notified of the rescheduling 48 hours prior to kickoff and that it was against that background that the club was demanding to be awarded three points.
Zanaco chairperson Edward Mutale said on Sunday that the bankers did not ask for a postponement as they were ready to play the match.
“It’s not like Zanaco didn’t show up for the game no. FAZ in their own wisdom rescheduled the game and communicated to both parties and I am sure there were no referees there (Sunset). Because if they had not communicated referees would have showed up,” Mutale said.
He explained that all players were released from the national team to feature for their league games on Wednesday and that the club received no communication to release the players back to the national team.
“Our players were released like all players on Wednesday; the team entered camp in readiness for the game. We were not communicated to when the players were needed back. We had the likes of Ziyo Tembo in camp even one of the assistant coaches at the national team Dabid Chilufya till this morning (yesterday),” Mutale said.
Efforts to get both Ponga and communications manager Desmond Katongo proved futile by Press time.