Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga has reaffirmed his administration’s committment to uplifting the standards of football in Zambia and has dismissed as malicious claims from known FAZ detractors that there were no official match balls for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Kenya.
“I don’t think we need to respond to such things. For example, you are asking me about no handshakes before the match. But that was a directive from CAF and nothing to do with me as FAZ president,” Kananga said.
“Can you see how these lies are being fanned? Suffice to say that the Association provided everything necessary for the match to go on as an Africa Cup qualifier including match balls.”
“You see elections were in March. But some people have failed to move on. Now we need to concentrate on taking our football to a new level. We have a four-year mandate to preside over the affairs of football in Zambia.
Kamanga explained that the country’s football was going through a transitional phase and appealed for patience from fans and other key stakeholders, saying he will need time to turn around the country’s football fortunes.
“They accused me of being a failure. Even now they are saying the same things. I would urge the fans to be patient and check the motives of those who have made attacking myself and the FAZ executive based on lies as their personal calling.
“We are going through a tough transition. Since winning the Africa Cup in 2012 our fortunes have dwindled. Some of the poor performances we are seeing today are an accumulation of factors from back then.”
“This is what we want to address. We have taken responsibility and we are focused on doing that. We want the team to qualify to the World Cup in Russia.
“But without the support of key stakeholders this dream becomes a huge challenge,” Kamanga said.