By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
THE fiasco surrounding the transfer of defender Isaac Shamujompa looks to be far from over after both Intersport and Kalulushi Modern Stars refused to accept the verdict passed by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) Players’ Status Committee.
Intersport were categorical in their repudiation of the FAZ verdict, saying they were not ready to sacrifice the player.
Five clubs were embroiled in a transfer dispute involving Shamujompa, all claiming ownership of the player but according to a 13 paged verdict passed by FAZ Players’ Status Committee, the defender belongs to Nchanga Rangers.
Power Dynamos, Intersport, Kalulushi, Rangers and Buildcon all claimed the player was theirs before the verdict was passed.
But in an interview yesterday, Intersport chief executive officer Ezekiel Lungu said his club would not be intimidated by bigger clubs and woud fight to get their player back.
Lungu said Intersport refused to accept the ruling on the player and had already notified FAZ on its intentions to appeal.
“We have notified FAZ that we can’t accept that ruling and we have made it clear that we are going to appeal. Isaac is our player. I don’t want to pre-empt our appeal but one thing we want to tell everyone is that we will not be intimidated by the bigger clubs,” Lungu said.
Lungu added that it was unfair to ban the club from getting involved in player transfers for a year because it will kill the development of football.
In similar fashion, Kalulushi secretary Joe Silwamba said the club could not sit back and accept the ruling from FAZ.
Silwamba said the club would appeal the verdict because there were a lot of issues that the FAZ Players’ Status Committee did not put into consideration before making their decision.
He said Kalulushi bought Shamujompa from Intersport using the right channels and evidence was there to support the claim.
“No one can accept that ruling. Yes, we will appeal. If this issue was handled properly and everything considered we were not going to get to this point. Shamujompa is ours, our former chairman is the one who handled his purchase and Intersport knows this,” Silwamba said.
He said the club will sit and table the matter so that the appeal could be done in good time.
Silwamba said Rangers persuaded the player to join them after playing a friendly match but never followed the correct channel.
“When we played a friendly against them, that’s when they saw the player and they exchanged numbers, next thing we saw was that he is training with them,” Silwamba complained.
Despite FAZ ruling that the player belonged to Rangers, Power also claimed that Shamujompa would continue featuring for them.
Power secretary Ricky Mamfunda said according to the verdict, the player’s interest was supposed to be considered.
Shamujompa made it clear that he wanted play Power despite interests from four other clubs.
“As you know, the same verdict said they will respect the wish of the player which means he will continue to play for us. He may be not our player but he will be featuring for us. I think to avoid complications, FAZ should give proper guidance on the matter because I think no one will accept to lose the player,” Mamfunda said.