KALU MUST COMEBACK, SAYS KABWE

By Fulman Mukobeko

FORMER Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chairperson and football fanatic Henry Kabwe believes that football legend Kalusha Bwalya is the best person to take over the football administration of Zambia (FAZ) as head.

Kabwe said in an interview that Bwalya, popularly known as Kalu, must be retained at Football House because of his outstanding and impeccable record at Football House.

He said it was sad that Bwalya was negatively judged in the media despite his achievements both as a football icon and good administrator.

“For me, Kalu brought the Africa Cup trophy in 2012 when he was Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president. In terms of results, we have seen something. People talked about corruption. I remember Kalu going to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and those cases didn’t go anywhere.

“Personally, I could say that he can move on to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The same people who were saying that let him concentrate on CAF, started blocking him again, which is very unfortunate but I think let us respect him,” Kabwe said.

Kabwe, however, said Bwalya made a mistake by indulging in partisan politics when he supported the Patriotic Front (PF) in the 2016 polls.

“What is important is for him to be supported at whatever level. I feel with politics going on, he can move on and leave others to take over,” he said.

And Kabwe said the KK 11 team was much better than the current Zambia national team tutored by former Chelsea boss Avram Grant.

“The KK 11 had players who would play football for Zambia for 20 years. We knew that this is a number for this player but nowadays, one plays for the national team for one year, two years we have changes. Another coach comes. One year, two years we have changes. We have (Justin) Shonga, Augustine Mulenga then we have another one coming in.

“I think we need stability in the national team. Those days I remember we were young but before the late Dennis Liwewe would announce the team line up, we already knew who was going to be in which position but nowadays it is difficult to know who is going to be in which position because of instability,” he said.

Kabwe said what was needed for the national team was stability and that after the Gabon air disaster, it was very easy to mobilise new players to take over and the team reached the final because of stability.