In the early hours of 13th February 2012 Stophila Sunzu took a spot kick that made history as Chipolopolo lifted the Africa Cup of Nations trophy for the very first time. What made the victory an even sweeter one, was the fact that it happened in Gabon, a country where the countries biggest tragedy in terms of football happened.
The 1993 Gabon Air disaster is not just Zambia’s worst football tragedy but among the worst the world of football has ever suffered. The country for once associated Gabon with great memories of winning a maiden Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
5 years on and the once mighty Chipolopolo is now nothing more than an average team from Southern Africa. Three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments have been held since 2012 and we have qualified to two (2013 and 2015) both times we have been eliminated in the group stages, the third time was once because we even failed to qualify as Guinea Bissau made their maiden appearance at our expense.
The world cup dream?,Well it remains just that a dream. We came close in 2013 but we blew it up as usual. What next now for Zambian Football?, Their are alot of things that can help us to redeem ourselves.
DRAFT A PLAN, STRUCTURE A ROAD MAP AND EXECUTIVE IT
If you were to ask me what our plan is for the next five or ten years I honestly have no idea. We need something to guide our progress, South Africa have vision 2022 to guide them, so why can’t we have a well drafted document in the same line. The document can contain things like the number of coaches we should have trained with a certain minimum qualification ( for example lets 20 coaches with Uefa Pro in 15-20 years), Build strong youth teams from Under 15, get more sponsors on board etc. At the end of that period we can assess how far we have gone and what we have achieved and what went wrong and how to correct it.
BUILD A NATIONAL TEAM
In 2012 no soccer fan could say a wrong thing about Chipolopolo but today half of the fans don’t even care about the team well figuratively not literally . Alot of people have lost interest in the national team and the empty seats at the stadium during national team games can tell the full story and given the fact that the U20 were able to fill up Heroes Stadium everytime they played during the 2017 U20 Africa Cup of Nations tournament. Yes a team will go through bad patches but not a continuous five years of disappointment when it matters most. If we were building a team yes it would make more sense but how do you build a team with players who have less than five years to play active football?
Germany at the on going Confederations cup have a very young squad with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Thomas Mueller, Matt Hummels and Tony Kroos watching from home. Coach Joachim Loew knows that he needs to give chance to players who have not had chance to impress him and might prove vital come next year when the World cup comes around.
Zambia can also start building a team with the U20 and U23 players at the core of the team but ofcourse performing players outside these are groups should also be incorporated. The young players need time to have the experience and why not start with friendlies and tournaments like COSAFA?.
USE COSAFA AND CHAN TO GIVE CHANCE TO PLAYERS AND GIVE THEM EXPERIENCE
The sore purpose of CHAN is to give local players chance and a platform to impress now when you see players that have played for the national and might be In the twilight of their careers receiving call ups you start to question the logic being applied. COSAFA can be used to give the U23 and U20 further experience and then CHAN used for its original purpose of giving players who have not had a chance or a platform to impress suitors and the national team coach for a place in the main national team. Reviving players careers must not happen at these tournaments because then it will defeat the purpose for which it was introduced (CHAN).
CALL UPS TO THE NATIONAL TEAM SHOULD BE ON MERIT
The national team is a place where every player dreams of going . The pride that with putting on your national colours is unmatched and hence players are motivated to perform well for a place at the national team but when you begin to see players coming from injuries make the national team it becomes confusing as to what criteria is being used.
It must be stated that a coach will call players to the national team based on different factors like those that fit in his philosophy and style of play, Those that he can easily work with to get results or players that are performing which is the most ideal.
The key thing here is the perfomance which can either be improving and playing well but losing in the case when you are building or not playing well but winning in a case where results are your only objective but you can also play well and win when your long term project has finally paid off.
TRAIN COACHES, INVEST IN EARLY TALENT IDENTIFICATION AND FOLLOW UP THE PLAYERS PROGRESS
When Zambia U20 National team played Germany and the team was 3-1 up and the Germany’s equalised one could see the difference in technical abilities of the two head coaches. Zambia U20 National team would have won the tournament with a more technical coach. It’s not Beston Chambeshi’s fault and no one is blaming him but some improved coaching courses can help. The fact that the U20 have graduated to U23, Why not graduate them together with Beston and send him for some good coaching courses to better his knowledge of the game which in the long run will benefit Zambian Football. Training of coaches in more improved coaching classes must be among our priorities.
Everyone is happy with the U20 National team achievements but who is going to replace them? Well that we have COSAFA U17 coming up trials have started and when another tournament comes we will again start new trials?. We can introduce a deliberate policy where clubs are forced to have atleast 3 U17 in their squad for the season be it in super woe maybe Division one or two.
This can even save us from the embarrassement we suffered last year when we were disqualified at U17 COSAFA due to age cheating. Who said age restriction tournaments are meant for winning?, The logic is to build a strong youth system in order to support the national team and have readily available replacements.
If we have as viable talent identification system we can easily be graduating players and have strong national teams at all levels ofcourse with proper progress follow up of these players.
Zambia is a power house in African football and as such it should quickly return to its rightful place or atleast starting heading there soon.
