Zambia call defeat "A national disgrace"

Written by Augustine Mukoka

BURYING our heads in the sand following Zambia’s disastrous outing for an international friendly against Ghana in London will be tantamount to living in denial.

It will not help us recover from the shame that has come with the scandal after Wednesday night.

The result – 4-1 in favour of Ghana – is what a purely disorganised lot will get on a good night. On a bad one, it would even be worse considering the circumstances in which Chipolopolo went into that game. During warm-up, the line-up was unknown because William Njobvu and Emmanuel Mayuka were still being awaited.

Little did I know that when I tackled the visa hitch for Chipolopolo last week, the problem was more than meets the eye. But I adequately traced the problem and projected what would happen. But it was worse that what I even feared.

The match was played without half the team coach Herve Renard summoned for the fixture. Renard had to rely on some three United Kingdom-based students drawn from obscurity. I have heard of Lyson Zulu in football circles but not Lengwe Kapotwe or Kabwe Kasese. That’s not to say they are bad players, if at all they are.

However, these students are not even in the fifth tier in our national team selection structure.

The three youngsters were romped into the team at the 11th hour to make sure Zambia had a full team, regardless of the quality, to fulfill the fixture.

That was after key players like captain Christopher Katongo, Andrew Sinkala, Jacob Mulenga, Emmanuel Mbola, Joseph Musonda, Felix Katongo, Noah Chivuta, Kennedy Mweene, Chanda Mwaba and Kalililo Kakonje failed to secure visas to the United Kingdom.

Unfortunately, FAZ communications officer Erick Mwanza sugar-coated the embarrassing outing with his many lies. This time he publicly announced that Jacob was injured and could not make it for the match. He was caught napping when Mulenga rebuffed the lie.

But I’m not surprised that Erick can lie with such impunity and mislead the country on a very important issue. Furthermore, it’s evil for Erick to suggest Jacob is ill when the player is enjoying good health. But that’s the carelessness and incompetence we are tolerating at Football House.

Not only did Erick claim Jacob was injured, he went on – two hours before the match – to announce that Christopher and Sinkala had made it for the Ghana match.

Yet he knew too well that they had not acquired visa because of the alarming mal-administration at Football House.

That is how disgracefully FAZ is running the number one sport in the country, the most expensive sport funded by tax-payers. A friendly against Ghana was the best we could get but it goes into our history books as one of the worst organised matches.

The failure to organise this match has laid bare the quality of leadership we have at Football House –a collection of disastrous individuals. Readers of this column are well aware about my position on FAZ general secretary George Kasengele… these are some of the examples of his incompetence I have argued about.

Instead of proving critics wrong, he gives them sufficient credence through his detestable management style. We cheated and robbed Ghana by not giving them a competitive team. That’s criminal. Is honestly that the way we want to run football? No!

Ghana had their crème de la crème in London. Michael Essien, Stephane Appiah, Sulley Muntari, Junior Agogo, among others but we opted to give them London students.

The repercussions for that sort of organisation are grave. No competitive team will offer us a friendly and our FIFA ranking will drop further.

That’s what mediocrity can do. The shape of mediocrity has reared it’s ugly head into our game and a national team – a flag carrier – is reduced to levels of a school’s side.

I understand the players that left the country on Tuesday morning spent close to nine hours hovering at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg when there are hotels five minutes away.

The team was not in any form of attire - so I’m reliably informed - and arrived at Heathrow looking like a bunch of homeless kids. Please save our beloved Chipolopolo from further embarrassment being orchestrated by Kalusha and his chola boys. Njobvu and Mayuka arrived at Heathrow but there was no one to pick them up because the match was only a few minutes from kicking off at Brisbane Road. I’m impeccably informed the two boys were almost hiking motorbikes to beat the London traffic to get to Brisbane. They got to the stadium at half time and featured in the second half. Surely, this is what we call national team.

Trouble is that we are running FAZ on auto-pilot. Instead of organising a national assignment, Kasengele, Munaile and almost half the FAZ executive committee were busy witnessing their president’s wedding ceremony at Summer Place in Johannesburg.

In their wisdom, the wedding was more important than the Ghana friendly. Oh, yes, the wedding was very important to Kalusha but, please, not to the extent of subjecting the country to irrecoverable shame and damage.

A crew on SuperSport turned Zambia into a laughingstock during the Thursday Soccer Africa programme. That’s how best these individuals can portray the image of Zambia – the real Africa – to the outside world.

The objective of the Ghana friendly was to prepare for the upcoming fixture against Algeria. Those three students will not be in Algiers next month and almost half the starting line-up will not play come September 6.

Therefore, there was no need to even fulfill the friendly. But we had committed ourselves no matter how shambolically we approached a high-profile encounters.

FAZ owes this country an explanation. Not those good-for-nothing statements inundated with falsehoods. In fact, Bwalya should consider resigning on moral grounds for ridiculing the country in such disgracing fashion.

To say they lack integrity, as sports minister Kenneth Chipungu is suggesting could be an understatement. It’s simply jungle football administration on offer. There is no way we can use amateurs to feature in national colours when we don’t even have a clue about their fitness levels. Tragedies have occurred on the field of play and what could have been our explanation?

It’s only in Zambia where this bizarre organisation by a clique whose prime mission is to feast on player transfers and travel allowances can be allowed.

Suffice to say, the Ghana friendly was devoid of any strategic plan and that is why the country’s reward is immeasurable shame.

If we had bothered to roll out a proper plan, the visa challenge would have been identified and solutions devised without the general public noticing anything.

Additionally, FAZ would have settled for a Gabon friendly in Libreville where visa would not have been an issue. And instead of settling for students, FAZ should have asked for Charles Musonda’s two eldest sons at the Anderlecht youth team to feature since they are European Union residents. It would have made more sense than reducing a competitive friendly into a social match similar to what I would watch, or occasionally, feature in at Barclays Sports Complex in Lusaka.

It’s surely a shame but since FAZ is full of shameless individuals, they will still walk head high as if nothing happened. Meantime, a huge hole is punched into our tourism sector by potential visitors who would conclude we are all as disorganised as that crew at Football House.

I can only say thanks to FAZ, its president Kalusha, vice president Emmanuel Munaile, treasurer Boniface Mwamelo, Marcha Chilemena, Keegan Chipango Violet Bwalya, Lenny Nkhuwa, Henschel Chitembeya, Pivoty Simwanza and Kasengele for helping us become a disgraced football comedy.

Is it ‘Eyes on the ball?’ No, let’s try; ‘Eyes on the mess.’

mukoka@post.co.zm