EDITORIAL COMMENT
‘Praying for the FAZ executive to fail’
Football over decades has become a business, political tool, and certainly one of the most entertaining sports globally. In fact, few things can rival football as a spectator sport and this is also matched by the number of people who participate in the sport – be it at grassroots level, 5-a-side leagues or simply playing for fun with friends. In the last global census undertaken by the sport’s governing body FIFA, it was estimated that there are 265 million people who play the sport along with more than five million referees, which equates to four per cent of the world’s population.
It can therefore, factually be stated that football is the most popular sport in the world. A major employer too.
It took time for the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, to realise how powerful football is politically. This led to the US bid for the 1994 edition which they eventually hosted. This resulted from a realisation that football had become a global political power, no wonder the world football governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is a government in itself.
Back home, we have witnessed football politics at a very low level, especially in the last 15 years. Zambian football has suffered at the hands of politics. There has been a lot of name calling, simply because certain stakeholders in the game do not like the people occupying Football House. We have seen hooliganism of the worst kind. We went to a level where a FAZ official slapped a journalist in the name of football politics.
The PF government worsened it when they joined the fight against the Andrew Kamanga-led FAZ executive. Their levels of engagement with Kamanga became too petty and unjustified – to a point where we risked being banned by FIFA.
We are not saying Kamanga’s administration should not be checked or criticised. Far from it. To the contrary, we are encouraging checks and balances on the current FAZ executive because they are not angels – they are human beings. They have a lot of inadequacies as well. But what we encourage is levelheaded engagement with them, not pettiness. Let us talk about issues that will develop football. Please don’t take us backwards with your petty demands about who should be at football house and who should not.
For example, most Kamanga critics want our football icon Kalusha Bwalya to go back to Football House as president. But this is a man who was at the helm of Zambian football for 12 years or so. Why do they want to bring him down when he should be ascending to higher levels? We want to see our Kalu occupy some big positions at CAF or FIFA. He is a legend. Please, leave the man out of your mess and concentrate on your own imaginary battles with Kamanga. After all, sadists never win anywhere in the world.
And we agree with sports minister Elvis Nkandu when he says people in football should not pray for the Football Association of Zambia to fail so that they have a reason to challenge the leadership.
“We need to be very united especially those who are in football. It’s high time that you unite and it’s not always that you are looking forward to someone’s failure. We should not always encourage other people to fail. You need to come together because I believe that a united house will be able to do wonders,” says Nkandu. “This is not about FAZ but this is about people in football. You should unite. Don’t pray for people to fail. You are not in Cameroon; you are Zambians and something that should preoccupy your mind is to have a positive result. Not praying for someone to fail so that tomorrow you have a reason to say ‘let me get into that position’. Everything has got its own time. I am begging you, for once you people forget about what you people differed and concentrate on building football. Let’s be united so that we achieve our objectives.”
Elvis’ call is sincere and patriotic. It is not born out of selfishness. And we applaud him for starting a new page as sports minister. He has not joined the bandwagon of Kamanga’s sworn adversaries, some of whom have no reason for the ‘beef’ with Andrew. We remember that some people tried to bring Elvis into this fight when he was just appointed sports minister, but he quickly realised and came out of it. This is wise leadership where you refuse to be used in unknown and uncalled for fights. Keep it up Elvis! We need this spirit and leadership because football is more important than individual mercenaries and charlatans.
When our players kick the ball on the pitch, they don’t do it for Andrew or Kalusha. They do it for their country – Zambia. No wonder they are called the Zambia national football team or Chipolopolo as we fondly know them. Unity is part of our legacy and identity on this continent. Let’s continue developing our football and one day we shall definitely qualify for the World Cup