The recently ended CHAN tournament has highlighted several
deficiencies that continue to afflict Zambian football and show no sign of
changing as the game struggles to regain its former status on the African
continent.
Zambia’s quarter final loss to Guinea appeared close on
paper but, truth be told, the gap in class between the two teams was much wider
than the result showed. Guinea strung their passes together in a coherent
pattern, their first touch on the ball was excellent, and they played with a pace
and verve that Zambia could not match. Watching the two semi-finals after
Zambia’s exit, it was patently clear that the last four teams, Guinea, Cote
d’Ivoire, Mali and DRC were a cut above the Zambian team.
With the exception of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations
success, Zambia’s showing in the last two decades, both at club and national
team level, has been nothing to write home about. The subsequent form of the
national team in successive tournaments - after 2012 - show a return to
failures of the period between 1998 and 2010, when Zambia bowed out of
tournament in the first round, with the exception of 2004 when, even worse, the
team failed to even qualify.
The consecutive first round exits threaten to confine Zambia
to the category of one-hit-wonders, like Ethiopia and Sudan, who also have
Africa Cup victories on their records but have never been able to come close to
making an impact in African football again.
Where does Zambia’s resurrection lie?
In reinventing the domestic game as a hub of youth development-
as was the case in the seventies and eighties- when school’s football was the
engine that churned out talented individuals who could hold their own against
any other players in African football. Zambian clubs featured in the finals of
African club competitions and rarely went out before the semi-final stage. It
was a similar situation with the national team that, in the eighties alone, played
a final and two semi-finals in the Africa Cup of Nations. The story of the
demise of Zambia’s football structures does not need repetition here; they
collapsed with the dismemberment of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines and with
the country’s precipitous economic decline that led to the abandonment of the
socialist policies of the UNIP government and the painful restructuring of the
transition to a free-market economy.
Since that calamitous period for Zambian football, the
school’s and mining community football structures that churned out Godfrey
Chitalu, Dick Chama, Charles Musonda, Kalusha Bwalya, and Wisdom Chansa and so
many other great stars disintegrated and were not replaced or reinvented.
Worldwide, the shift from schools or communities to club-owned
or Football Association-run programmes has taken place. Those countries that
failed to make the transition have seen their fortunes decline. Zambia is a
prime example. Today, with schools no longer the engine room of football
development, most players filtering into the development teams come from
academies that have been set up by individuals through their own efforts and
from some of the clubs that have belatedly set up their own youth structures.
They should be commended for their efforts in taking up the initiative to fill
the void left by the collapse of national structures. Yet, they will be the
first to admit that the quality of players coming through the ranks is a far
cry from the past generations that made Zambia a household name.
On the eve of Zambia’s 50th Independence
celebrations last year, several veteran followers of Zambian football were
asked to select their best ever eleven in fifty years of Zambian football. Those
who had been privileged to see the evolution of the domestic game from the
seventies to date selected players who had been prominent in the earlier era,
leaving out even those who had brought the country their first ever Africa Cup
success in 2012. Their selection evoked the ire of the younger generation who
had not had the opportunity or privilege to see Zambian football at its zenith,
but then lack of TV footage from that great era means that they will not be
able to make the comparison.
If Zambia is to return to become a consistent and leading
side in African football again, the onus lies on the games leaders to design
and implement a structure that will, once again, take young players from an
early age through a development programme that teaches the basics from an early
age, run by qualified personnel and that graduates players from their local
township, village or community through city, district, provincial and national
foundations into the clubs and ultimately the national teams. This requires
funding and recruitment of qualified staff, development of training facilities
and a coordinated and formalised development programme.
Such transformation requires competent, focused and
committed leadership. It also needs management structures and personnel with
understanding of how to manage organisations in the 21st century and
in a dynamic and fast-changing world. The ways of operating in the past will
not hold up in today’s environment. As any management student understands, an
organisation that does not evolve and adapt will inevitably fail and wither
away. Zambian football administration needs to take its ‘great leap forward’ if
it is to return to the fore of the African game and challenge for African
titles and to achieve world cup qualification.
