‘Nkana will pay’

SUN SPORTS writes NKANA FC Chief Executive Officer Charles Chakatazya says the Kitwe giants remain committed to paying striker Walter Bwalya the alleged US$32,000 owed to him in sign-on fee arrears. He said Nkana will soon pay the second installment of the debt after the club paid Bwalya the first instalment of what was owned to the former Nkana striker who moved on a permanent transfer to Egypt’s El Gouna Sporting Club. Chakatazya said Nkana has struggled to pay the second installment because of luck of income generating activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are still committed to paying Walter Bwalya and we have paid the first installment now we are pushing to pay the second installment. “It’s not that we have refused to pay him. No! It’s because there has been no income generating actives, every team is struggling if you can see now we are playing games without fans that is a huge loss in terms of income generation but the issue of Walter Bwalya is something we will resolve,” Chakatazya said. “We have done a payment plan and the first installment was done and the second installment was supposed to be done in July but we are still making arrangements to pay it’s not like we don’t want to give him,” he said. Bwalya’s representatives requested that Nkana be docked 3 points, cover the case costs and that they pay interest of 5 percent per annum as it exceeded a year that Nkana owed Walter Bwalya. Chakatazya however said it would be unfair for FIFA to deduct points from Nkana because they haven’t failed to pay the player what is owned to him. He said Nkana’s case is deferent because the club never failed to pay salaries and has managed to pay the first installment of the money owed to Bwalya. “If the only punishment is deducting points then I don’t know which law will be applied because we have a similar case with Steven Adams which FIFA ruled and they never talked about point’s deductions so I don’t know where people are getting the preconceived mind that six points will be deducted,” Chakatazya said. “Our situation is deferent from other clubs had their points being deducted because they failed to pay players’ salaries. Our situation was a dispute on the sign on fee in a pre-contract which doesn’t talk about salary arrears,” Chakatazya said. The Sun