Judge us on the performance of all national teams, not just Chipolopolo – FAZ VEEP

Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) vice President, Justin Mumba has responded to a letter by FAZ Life Member Mwansa Mbulakulima asking FAZ President Andrew Kamanga to step down.

The former Former FAZ Executive Committee member has asked Kamanga to resign following the Chipolopolo Boys’ poor showing in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

We have taken note of the letter written by Mr. Mwansa Mbulakulima a former two-party Member of Parliament for Milenge Constituency on the FAZ president Andrew Kamanga.

Mr. Mbulakulima, who was an executive committee member almost two decades ago and serving on the dissolved Zamsure Football Club executive then says Mr. Kamanga should resign based on the performance of the Zambia Men’s National Team in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Mumba has found it strange that Mbulakulima has singled out Kamanga out of a 13 member Committee.

“The FAZ executive committee finds it strange that Mr. Mbulakulima singled out Mr. Kamanga in a 13-member executive committee on the performance of the Chipolopolo when the problems are multi-faceted. FAZ manages five men’s national teams (U15, U17, U20, U23, and Chipolopolo while they additionally manage three women’s national teams (U17, U20, and Copper Queens. The normal scorecard of judging the executive should be on the performance of all the national teams,” Mumba told FAZ Media.

“The FAZ executive committee that was elected in February 2021 comprises 13 elected officials that manage the game collectively. The executive is only in its eighth month of their four-year mandate and would be happy to be judged after that period.”

Mumba has also wondered why Mbulakulima has only found his voice now, alleging that he remained quiet when FAZ was harassed by Government.

“Mr. Mbulakulima should also be reminded that FAZ struggled to hold elections for a year owing to political interference to an extent that Zambia almost got suspended by FIFA from all football activities.

The claims that Mr. Kamanga has been fighting to block people to challenge him is fallacious as all the changes to the FAZ constitution were FIFA directed.”

“For the record, no one has ever been blocked from contesting elections as anyone who qualified under the revised constitution was allowed to stand in the polls presided over by FIFA.”

“We, therefore, advise Mr. Mbulakulima to openly express his interest to contest for the FAZ presidency as provided for in the constitution as opposed to issuing wild and misleading statements,” Mumba added.

Mumba believes it is unfair to judge FAZ based on the Copper Bullets’ performance alone.

“The FAZ Executive committee has scored many successes in other areas which need to be noted like the U20 AFCON victory in 2017 for the first time, qualifying the Women National team to the Olympics for the first time and FAZ has set a high benchmark in terms of managing the resources which speak to the transparency and accountability espoused by Mr. Kamanga,” he says.

“We continue operating on an open-door policy basis and invite all the those who have ideas to improve the performance of our national teams to come on board and contribute to the development of the game.”

“The Chipolopolo may have suffered several setbacks but the current outlook with a lot of progressive stakeholders points to a turnaround of fortunes,” he added.

Mbulakulima in his letter dated 12th October 2021 asked Kananga to resign following failure by the senior Men’s national team to qualify for 3 consecutive AFCON tournaments.

“Therefore, going by your record, I find it within me as a concerned Zambian to request that you

step down and allow other people who are equally competent, carry the mantle of leading the

team.”

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