FAZ hikes Division One FUNDS

SUN SPORTS writes@SunZambian THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) will increase provincial grants and equipment support for its affiliates.FAZ president Andrew Kamanga said the association would increase the grants with Division one and division two clubs set to get K15,000 and K10,000 respectively.He was speaking after witnessing Malalo Police beat Kasama United 1-0 in the Northern Province league decider for the regional representative in the national play-offs for National Division One.Kamanga said Division three clubs would be getting K7,500 while Division IV clubs would be benefiting K5,000.Additionally, all the 10 provinces will get infrastructural refurbishment with phase one picking on five provinces while the rest will be included in phase II.Kamanga also expressed delight that Kasama Sports Stadium was one of the five stadia that would be rehabilitated under phase one of the stadia upgrade programme supported by FIFA.“I want to announce here that we have been given money for infrastructure development. We have signed an MOU with FIFA and we are going to rehabilitate five stadia in the provincial centres. Under phase one Northern Province is guaranteed to have a stadium rehabilitated. It should be possible to bring any national team to play from here,” he said.“Each project will cost US$300,000 at minimum. We are also committed to increasing the level of support. We have also planned to increase the grants,” Kamanga said.Phase one has Kaole (Luapula), Kasama (Northern), Independence (North-Western), David Kaunda (Eastern) and Maramba (Southern).Meanwhile, Kamanga said decentralisation would give provinces more leeway in organising the game at the grassroots.“If you look at what we have done since 2016, we have re-organised the constitution. For the first time we have a FAZ provincial executive in Northern Province. In fact they were elected so there is a chair, vice and women and committee member. We also want to change the structure of the league so that we have U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 and U-21,” he said.Kamanga said the selection of national team players for junior teams will be easier if the provinces have age-centred leagues which are fully functional.The FAZ boss said that the decision to organise provincial leagues by age would lie with the provincial leadership.Kamanga said that selections for junior teams like happened with the U-15 national team would be much easier with structured junior leagues in the provinces.Kamanga urged the provincial leadership to ensure that the province begins to work on building a strong structure for age-centred leagues. The Sun