FAZ PRESIDENT’S CORNER: GPS Equipment for All Super League Teams Ready for Handover
GREETINGS to you the followers of the beautiful game. It looks like December brings more football action to our doorstep to wind up the year on a high. Our under-17 boys and girls will kick start their 2024 Cosafa campaign this week in Johannesburg. The tournament for the boys is particularly exciting as it will be used as a qualifier for the Africa Cup of Nations. We are happy to announce that the team has undergone the requisite Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) among other tournament requirements.
Our record in this regard speaks for itself as we have kept to our high standard of eliminating any possibility of cheating since the ghosts of 2016. We are aware of teams that were previously disqualified on account of players failing the MRI test. Expectedly, all participating teams will undergo a CAF prescribed MRI test before the tournament kicks off.
The under-17 tournament is particularly important as we are keen to have the team join the long list of our national teams that will be participating at the Africa Cup. The Chipolopolo, Copper Queens and under-20 boys have already secured their AFCON tickets. We are also keeping our fingers crossed for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) where Zambia has to negotiate its way past Mozambique over two legs. The team starts its camp today and we will be keeping tabs on the preparations to make sure that they are ready for the two-legged tie.
On the administrative side of business, we have completed our 10-province administrators training which will revolutionize how we manage football. It was great to empower our provincial leaders with technical, club licensing, marketing, management and refereeing knowledge. The orientation sits well with our decentralization policy which has taken football back to the provinces. We will make this program continuous as it will put our administrators in good stead to grow our game.
Finally, there could not have been better news coming out of Football House this week than the arrival of the Global Tracking System (GPS) equipment that will be distributed to all the 18 Super League teams. As part of our commitment to help our clubs modernize their operations we undertook to secure GPS equipment for all the Super League teams through the support of FIFA. We will be handing out the equipment to all the teams in the next few days. It is a development that we have no doubt will completely change the face of the Zambian game. Our appeal to the clubs is that they guard this equipment jealously as it has come at a great cost.
Have productive week!