Power Dynamos Football Club: A New Journey

Thirty years ago, 1984, I sat in the terraces at the Arthur Davies Stadium and watched Power Dynamos win their first-ever league title with a comprehensive 4-1 defeat of Mufulira Wanderers. The match, played under floodlights - a rare occurrence these days - was a thriller and I was overjoyed as Wisdom Chansa and company steamrolled over opposition that included talented players, among them Kalusha Bwalya, Philemon Mulala, and Frederick Kashimoto, all regular national team players.

Over the years as the playing generations changed my relationship with the players evolved, from hero worshipper to friendship, older brother to father figure and now, with recent my appointment as committee member at the club, to administrator.

The road ahead is one full of uncertainty as we, the members of the executive committee, seek to return the team to the heights of over two decades ago when Power Dynamos became the first Zambian team to lift a continental title with victory over Nigeria's BCC Lions, 5-4 on aggregate over two legs.

Since that glorious and memorable episode, Zambian football subsequently sunk to all all-time low with the decline of the domestic game, only to resurface in 2012 with an unexpected victory in the Africa Cup of Nations that reignited the passions of local fans , sparking a mini-revival of the local league.
We hope to, at Power Dynamos, build a club that will stand the test of time by making it a self-sustaining entity, win the league regularly, win an African title again and finally, play at the World Cup of Clubs.

This will take considerable effort and ingenuity given the paucity of commercial revenue streams in Zambian football and the reluctance of marketing executives in the corporate sector to look beyond the classical marketing tools of print, radio, outdoor and TV. Their view of football as just a game and not a vehicle for reaching the large, emotive audiences that follow the game make the task for commercial independence all the more difficult. One could say, in their defence, that Zambian football has itself not looked at the game introspectively and made itself available as a commercial vehicle. Domestic football is still plagued by cases of mismanagement, poor facilities, crowd violence and non-commercial decisions that beggar belief. Matches played midweek during working hours with virtually no crowd in attendance are a case in point.

On the field, there is still much work to be done to raise the technical level to that of the north African giants who continually dominate the continental competitions with the odd cup going to the deep-pocketed TP Mazembe of the Democratic republic of Congo. The players, too, need to raise their levels of professionalism to a higher plane with diet, media relations, work ethic, tactical discipline and off-field conduct all areas that could do with much improvement.

If all goes according to plan, the league title should be within reach this season, continental football next year and thereafter the bar will be set higher - to become African champions once again.