Army Commander, FAZ boss welcome triumphant Buffaloes
THE victorious Zambia army side Green Buffaloes Women Football Club arrived in the country to a thunderous welcome at the Zambia Air Force Airport.
Army Commander Lieutenant General Dennis Alibuzwi and FAZ president Andrew Kamanga led welcoming party.
FAZ Women Representative Colonel Priscila Katoba, General Secretary Adrian Kashala and secretariate staff were joined by some top army staff at a reception spiced up by Pastor Peter Makembo’s brass band.
The team touched down at 18:30 hours aboard a Zambia Air Force plane and were treated to heroes’ welcome.
In welcoming the team, General Alibuzwi said the army were proud of the team’s achievement especially after pushing them so hard prior to their departure for the regional championship.
He said that command was happy that they had seen a retain on their investment on the team that were crowned Cosafa club champions and earned the right to participate at the CAF club championship.
Gen. Alibuzwi pledged continued support to the team as they prepare for the continental championship.
“We also make it a point that whatever we do for the men’s team is also availed to the women’s team. we are happy that we can see the fruits of that sponsorship in tandem with FAZ,” he said.
And Kamanga said the success of the women’s game was not by accident as it was because of sustained investment.
“It is not by accident what we are witnessing now because of the level of investment, we now have the women’s league in seven of the 10 provinces in the country,” he said.
“Most importantly the national team is a combination of players who come from clubs and the clubs are also doing it. We wish to congratulate Green Buffaloes Women’s team for representing Zambia and winning the Cosafa Cup.”
He added: “Of course as FAZ we are very proud of this achievement because it goes to demonstrate that football is no longer a social activity but it has to be looked at as a business and we are grateful the commander for the support that they are putting in to support the women’s team.”
Kamanga thanked the army commander for rewarding the members of the WAFCON bronze winning side with promotion.
“After our players came from the Africa Cup, we saw a number of them being promoted, so we hope the recognition does not stop here and has to be an ongoing process,” he said.
“For them to be recognized, we implore the players to continue working hard and those who have an opportunity to go to the World Cup, it is another opportunity that they can continue to showcase their skills.”
Kamanga said, “As FAZ we continue working very hard and we will continue to invest in women’s football because we believe, we have to support the girl child at different levels.”
“Our appeal is that you should not relent, in our own small way we also wish to state that as FAZ we wish to recognize the effort of this winning team with a small token that we will pass on to the command.”
Green Buffaloes Women’s Football Club lifted the Cosafa crown after defeating defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns 6-5 on post match penalties.
Credit: FAZ
