The de-reregistration of Nakambala Leopards… what really happened?
The town of Mazabuka has been hit with two tragedies within a short period, first the death of FAZ Veep, Rix Mweemba (May his soul rest in eternal peace) and later on the news that Nakambala Leopards will not participate in the National Division One after being relegated from the Super League.
The story behind the deregistration of Nakambala Leopards which meant the end of the club has left a lot of football fans in Mazabuka with more questions than answers with accusations being thrown back and forth on social media.
The ZamFoot Crew in this article will look at answering some of the burning questions that the fans may have.
HOW IT BEGAN
The beginning of the end started back in July after the Government gave a go-ahead for FAZ to allow teams to start training ahead of the resumption of the 2019/2020 Zambia Super League season which was halted back in March due to the Coronavirus epidemic.
On 22nd July Nakambala Leopards were scheduled to play their first match after the resumption of a rescheduled week 22 encounter against Buildcon in Ndola, a match they failed to fulfill as the players had not resumed training because the sponsors’ medical department refused to give them clearance.
Nakambala Stadium is within the Zambia Sugar Estate and players live within the compound hence Zambia sugar was concerned that if a player tested positive for COVID-19 the company would be forced to close due to the risk of spreading the virus.
Zambia Sugar was at the start willing to continue paying the players and let the team be relegated to not put the lives of the majority in Mazabuka at risk.
HOW IT IS GOING
FAZ President Andrew Kamanga on Tuesday in an interview with the ZamFoot Crew gave further details as to how the whole situation happened.
Kamanga explained that after the relegation to National Division One Nakambala Leopards told FAZ that the sponsors, Zambia Sugar were only willing to sponsor the team in the district and not a national league.
“We received a letter from Zambia sugar, I think it was sometime in July which indicated that they were going to pull out of the league on account of the covid challenge particularly that there was a lockdown in the township. So we asked for a meeting with Zambia sugar and Nakambala, I think we met them. We went through the guidance, We explored possibilities of how they could allow football to be played outside the Nakambala Township, but unfortunately, that was overtaken by the decision to suspend the league as at week 27 and as a consequence Nakambala only missed three games, When we had restarted the league and I think that was the trigger for missing those games which was a case of now disciplinary matter within the confines of the FAZ statutes,” Kamanga told the ZamFoot Crew.
“Now from that point up to where we are now, I think Nakambala indicated that their sponsors were only willing to sponsor them in the district, Not at the national level, So Nakambala wrote to FAZ and indicated that they were not going to continue being in the National Division One, So it’s a regrettable incident, So I mean if it was within our powers as far as to save this situation, it would have been possible.”
“But as you’d expect within FAZ we issue of Club licensing and one of the requirements is you need a letter of sponsorship from your sponsors. So if that is not forthcoming then, unfortunately, you cannot participate in the league, of course, these difficult times for the players and I think even for the town of Mazabuka because they will miss out on super league action. Even if it’s the team being relegated to National division one, They will still miss out on the division one league. So it’s a tough decision, but it’s obviously outside the FAZ control as it were,” The FAZ supremo added.
It’s a sad scenario and many club officials should draw lessons from this to make sure no club suffers the same fate in the future.
As things stand Nakambala Leopards, A team with so much history is no more and Zambia Sugar now wants to focus on forming an academy with the view of winning promotion to the Super League in the future.