THIS JOY MAYBE STOPPED BY POLITICS
By Bwezani Mbewe
The Zambian Women Football team historical qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was just what the dictor ordered.
The last time a football team was at the tournament representing Zambia was in 1988 in the Asian regions, Seoul in South Korea. Where the likes of Kalusha Bwalya, Johnston Bwalya etc did duty and mesmerized the football world. To an extent where Brazilians team who lost in final to eventual gold medalists were saying they would love a final with Zambia.
The ladies are going there.
But the happenings on the football scene locally is almost overshadowing the success of the women football team.
Last evening we faded into the night with news of the High Court interdic putting brakes on the on going FAZ elections in the regions that is meant to culminate into the election of a new FAZ Board on the 28th of March, 2020.
It practically, in my low knowledge of law one should dare conduct elections as they face arrest for court contemptuous actions. Its not good news at all. Whether FAZ has appealed or not. These matters should never be found in our courts of laws that pattern to football.
Am not a lawyer nor an expert in football administrative matters. But I can have a comfortable and logically good conversation regarding the local Zambian football. That’s my passion and thats my interest.
Seemingly, my passion is being traded on. Am not even sure, come next season we will have a team in the African Safari. We might not even have Zambia men’s national team competing in the Afcon Qualifiers or the World Cup. But more painful would be to derail the ladies from going to Tokyo because someone somewhere did something, the boardroom that has causes rafters out of the boardroom.
We are trading on a very thin ice as a football fraternity. And we had better get our acts together. Otherwise, the hard and deserved work done by the wonderful ladies will be thrown away. Dreams are achieved at these major tournaments. We don’t know who might be watching, it could life changing for many of those ladies playing at that tournament. But people in the boardrooms who don’t even kick the ball in football field are on the precipice of getting the blame.
Why are we having these fights? Cant we somehow find each other and resolve these issues for the good of football. Allow football on the pitch to be the loser or winner.
Just yesterday the World Heath Organization declared the Coronavirus a Pandemic. And that is declaration that could put the tournament in Tokyo later this year in jeopardy should the pandemic remain uncontained. That should be the reason why girls should fail to travel to the Olympics, that should be reason why Zambia should be stopped from playing the Afcon Qualifiers, that should be the reason we are not going to be participating in the African Safari.
Not our Politics in the game!!
Help Save Our Football!
