Confirms they will use their home ground …….
You may think that is a big statement to make or rather too early to let it out. But that’s not the feeling of the Chairman for Kitwe United, Mr. Gabriel Akayombokwa. Speaking to Bwezani in a telephone interview, Mr. Akayombokwa, commonly known as Aka feels ready and confident for the team to play in the FAZ MTN super league.
“Division one to me is the toughest division in Zambia because you find all qualities in the player, though we may have a bit of low experience and having played at that level for quite sometime and finishing in the top four in the last three years tells us that we have what it takes to remain in the super league. Get me right, not to participate but to compete. Kitwe United will present a lot of upsets in the super league the coming season,” Said Mr. Akayombokwa
The Kitwe United Chairman also affirmed that Kitwe United will play their games at their home ground which is Garden Park at Kitwe Playing Fields amid growing speculation that the team may use Nkana Stadium.
“We shall be playing our home games at our stadium unless we fail to beat the deadlines otherwise we are set for our home stadium. Works are progressing well.”
Aka added that the team has not been in the news yet about recruiting of players because they don’t want to do that before the confirmation of players that they are getting until the deals are done. He however said they were not going to overhaul the team that won promotion but rather use the team as the backbone and build the team around the winners to the super League.
“We won’t go to more than 10 players, we are just targeting areas were we had weakness and in short we only have beefing up and the technical team will remain the same.”
And the Assistant Coach, Mwanda Mwachisala told Bwezani that the team has what it takes to compete in the super league as he doesn’t see that major difference with the football in Division One Zone Two with that of the Super League.
“The gap between the Super League and Division one is not as big as it used to be, we have bright chances of competing, the gap is very narrow. We shall survive relegation and keep United in the Super League.”
Kitwe United in the Super League (Throw Back)
The last time Kitwe United qualified to the Super League was in 2001 when they made in top of Division One North alongside Forest Rangers. They played in the Super League until 2006 when they were relegated back into Division One North.
During those seven years, the best position Kitwe United finished was 6th in 2003 and some of the memorable results during that year were a 1-0 home win over Zanaco with the only goal scored by P Mulenga.
But perhaps the biggest shocker was against Nkana at Nkana stadium were Kitwe United beat Nkana 3-1 with goals coming from P.Kapele , S.Lubemba and J.Sitali. Apparently Joseph Sitali is being rumored of getting back to Kitwe United after stints at Power Dynamos and Mufulira Wanderers.
That very season, United also beat Red Arrows 1-0 at home with the lone goal from Bwalya Bwalya. The summary of 2003 season for Kitwe United is rather interesting, they played 30 games, won 12, drawn 12 and lost 6. They scored 30 goals and allowed 23 which amounted to 48 points. The following are the years and positions they finished from 2002 to 2006 until they got demoted.
2002 7th
2003 6th
2004 8th
2005 8th
2006 15th
That’s Kitwe United and they are back to the Super League dividing Kitwe further into three parts shared among Power Dynamos and Nkana. It will be electric derby in Kitwe especially the game involving Nkana and Kitwe United.
The exco apart from preparing the team, they are aware to the fact that their fans need attention in relation to hooliganism.
Aka the chairman has message to the fans:
“We have seen unprecedented behaviors of hooliganism in our fans, we have been promoted from division one to the Super League and this should call for their behavior change. I want to appeal to the fans to behave according to the norms accepted at this level that football circles demand. Let them stop the insults and throwing of stones. That’s not football.”
The die is cast and the season is close at hand, Kitwe United is back in the Super League and that excitement is Kitwe increased once more. Its time for exciting derby and another colourful events added in the Super League.
Whether they will maintain the Super League status is another story for another day, for today the big news is that the team will be in the Super League.
