The Player Drain snares Kalengo

Winston Kalengo's departure from  Zambian football to go and ply his trade in Congo Brazzaville comes no surprise. Zambian players have been easy pickings for foreign clubs whose owners have deep pockets, irrespective of the quality of the league's those clubs play in.

The antiquated remuneration structures in the Zambian Premier League leaves the door open for the snatching away of the best local talent. Most, if not all, of the clubs in the domestic league structure their remuneration by grouping players into three distinct tiers, with the best and most experienced players at the top, the promising and upcoming or fading older players in the middle, and the youth in the third bracket.
These three levels have ceilings that prevent players from earning their true worth.

An example is a football club I once served on the executive board of, which uses this structure, as all its rivals do. Though the tiers were similar to its competitors, their rivals upper limits were higher by amounts that were good enough to attract the attentions of our players.This also tied the club's hand when we sought to sign on several players and were unable to meet their demands. This also opened our players to overtures from our direct rivals and it was no surprise in mid season when we lost crucial players needed to take the team to league success. I have no doubt in my mind that this cost us the league title.

I have always advocated for the phasing out of this method of salary scales and its replacement by individually negotiated contracts. A player should be paid what he is worth and if it means breaking the bank to get them on board then so be it. I don't see why a top player in Zambia should not earn more if he can justify his earnings by delivering on the field and leading his club to success, both domestically and in the African club competitions, which gives the club access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and the potential to play in the lucrative World Cup of Clubs.

The onus is on clubs to utilise the various revenue streams available to them and not just rely on the grant from their corporate owners or government institutions to finance their operations. Once their financial base is more substantial, they can then untie their purse strings and hold on to their best talent for a longer period.

The current maximum wage structure will continue to keep Zambian clubs from succeeding in international competitions and further restrict player development by their absence from top flight African competitions.

Veteran Players in Developmental Team

The selection of Christopher Katongo and Isaac Chansa into the Zambia team that will participate in the African Nations Championship, CHAN, in Rwanda in January has raised eyebrows in football circles.

The two players, part of the generation introduced into the national team more than a decade ago have been out of the national team picture since 2013 in Chanda's case and 2014 in Katongo's.

Coach George Lwandamina's selection of the two into a tournament that is largely meant to develop players prevents two young players who are progressing in their careers from taking a forward step in their developmental process.

This is detrimental for the long term development of the next generation of players and the future of the national team. Zambia should be looking at bigger objectives such as qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. To include two players who will not be a part of this qualification process in a developmental team loses sight of the purposes of these competitions. I have always been opposed to the selection of players from the senior national team into junior sides as it adds nothing to their development and denies those players who need the experience to get to the next stage of their growth.