Grassroot football is our baby, says Kamanga

By MUKWIMA CHILALAFOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga says his administration will continue to invest in the grassroot football to ensure that they meet the objectives of the 10-year strategic plan that targets appearances at five Africa Cup of Nations and FIFA World Cups respectively.Speaking when he featured on Flava Fm, Kamanga said investment was key in ensuring that Zambia returned to the summit of the continental game.Kamanga said Zambia needed to have representation in elite leagues across the globe to ensure that the Chipolopolo competed favourably with top teams on the continent and beyond.The FAZ president noted that the crème of the Zambian players in Europe were in fringe leagues and needed to step up and ensure that the country was represented at the very top.“Look at where we are, in Europe our best players are in Austria, we had two in Belgium, we have three in Russia and two in Sweden but we need to get our players in those competitive leagues then we can be able to start the whole journey,” he said.“This is the process we have to accept, this may not give us the results today but it should be able to give us the results in the next 10 years.”Kamanga noted that with junior teams and the local assemblage of national team players had already given an indication of what grassroots investment can do.“We are comforted by the fact that our investments in the grassroots has paid off. We have delivered results at under-17, 20, and 23 we have qualified twice to the CHAN, we are the Cosafa champions at senior level,” he said.“On the women level we were at 2018 AWCON and have qualified for the Olympic Games for the first time, we are the best in Africa when it comes to that particular tournament. You can’t just write us off that everything we have done has amounted to nothing.”Kamanga also reiterated FIFA’s guidance that his executive would remain in office until the elective annual general meeting was held.