FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) vice president Justin Mumba has taken a swipe against former executive committee member Mwansa Mbulakulima for calling on Football House president Andrew Kamanga to resign.
On Tuesday, Mbulakulima wrote a letter to Kamanga asking him to step down from his post after the recent dismal showing by the senior national team.
However, Kamanga has chosen to be silent over the matter leaving it to his vice president to respond to the former Milenge Member of Parliament.
In a statement yesterday, Mumba castigated Mbulakulima for calling on Kamanga to quit.
“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 Mr. 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.
“The FAZ executive committee finds it strange that Mr. Mbulakulima singled out Mr. Kamanga in a 14-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 said.
Mumba said the FAZ executive committee comprises of 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.
“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,” Mumba said.
Mumba challenged Mbulakulima to join the race for the FAZ presidency if he so wishes.
“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,” he said.
