Nkana will win league next year – Mopani CEO

MOPANI Copper Mines chief executive officer Chris Vermuelen says he is confident that Nkana will win the MTN/FAZ Super League next year. Vermuelen said Nkana had silenced critics by winning the Barclays Cup and Charity Shield this year. He also said, as a sponsor, Mopani was proud that Mufulira Wanderers had managed to bounce back to the top flight. In an interview, Vermuelen said the company which was the principal sponsor of the 12-time league champions, was proud that the team would be playing in the CAF Champions League and pledged continued support for it to go far in the continental campaign.

We were unlucky not to win the league, we were really unlucky. But it was due to a bad start, we had soft losses at the start. But if we started the way we finished, we could be champions today, he said.

And let me make a prediction: Nkana will win the league next year and Mufulira Wanderers wont finish in the bottom, they will be up there. You see, winning the Barclays (Cup) has silenced critics and what that means is that we will continue supporting the teams. I have money in the budget for that. It will be very nice to see the Mopani brand across the continent with Nkana as the brand bearer.

Vermuelen paid tribute to the Nkana executive led by Everisto Kabila and the Wanderers executive for putting in what he termed ‘double shifts to make the clubs succeed.

…normally its the players who normally get the credit for success but there is a lot people that are in charge, put in to make sure that success happens. Everisto is an example, because they are also employees here but they put in double the effort to record this success, so we give credit to them and we want them to continue, said Vermuelen.