Grassroots gaining momentum – Kamanga
MUKWIMA CHILALA writes FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga says the coming in of Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic will galvanize the massive gains in the grassroots football structures that had seen the junior teams score a high success rate. Kamanga was speaking when he featured on live sports programme on Chete FM and said […]
MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga says the coming in of Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic will galvanize the massive gains in the grassroots football structures that had seen the junior teams score a high success rate.
Kamanga was speaking when he featured on live sports programme on Chete FM and said there were no shortcuts to success but continuous investments in the grassroots was key.
The FAZ president said that without harnessing the youth structures it would be impossible for Zambia to return among the elite of the African game.
He noted that with Micho in place the successes at the Under17, Under 20 and Under 23 could be morphed into a successful Chipolopolo brand.
Kamanga said fruits of investments in junior teams had started being seen with the under-17 winning two Council of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) titles under his reign while the under-20 had two regional COSAFA crowns and an African Cup of Nations (AfCON) title to their credit with the Under-23 having been to the Africa Cup in 2019.
He said the stage had been set to consolidate on the gains in the junior structures.
“From that progression I think we are at a point where we are strong enough with the coming in of the new coach where we can quickly assemble a new team made up of players from U17, U20, U23, CHAN and of course those who playing in foreign leagues.,” he said .
Kamanga“We are at a point where we can now start moving forward and qualify to the 2021 Africa Cup as well as the 2022 World Cup,”
Kamanga said the Under-16 league that was being piloted in Lusaka would be spread to other provinces.
“When it comes to youth development we have gone further by re-organizing the under-16 league in Lusaka which we hope to replicate in the other provinces,” he said.
“We have also an under-14 league being tested, going forward, you can see that we are focusing on investing in junior teams to be able to get more players into the senior team.”
And Kamanga noted that provinces had benefitted from the constitutional changes as they had direct representation on the national executive committee.
He also said the decentralized structure would ensure that provinces play a part in the selection of national team players especially for junior structures.
The Sun
