By Scoop Reporter
WE are hopeful that football may resume soon as Government relaxes restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) General Secretary Adrian Kashala has said.
Kashala says cancelling the league cannot be done unilaterally as various stakeholders need to be factored in.
“We are happy that President Edgar Lungu relaxed certain rules and now the next thing we are praying for is that we do not have an increased number of cases so that probably next week we have other rules relaxed so that at some point we have our sporting activities back.
“We want to have the league decided on the pitch. It is an investment for the clubs and stakeholders so you can’t just say we have cancelled the league. People put in money and it is something which may not go down well with the sponsors, they are looking at the prestige and others (clubs) would win something at the end of the day,” Kashala said.
He says cancelling the current league did not guarantee that the next season would kick-off immediately.
“It is not something that we can just say cancel the league today and start a new league. This is a worldwide problem. We are about two months into the whole situation. I think we can wait a little bit longer. We are all affected, so have to take a bit of time before we make certain decisions.
“CAF and FIFA know the situation which we are in. the situation requires us to take a bit of time in as far as decisions are concerned. How are we going to start a new league (2021 season) when the situation would not have improved at the time? It is just important that we remain patient and look at how the situation will improve so that at the time we will have the situation controlled then we can make a decision,” he said.
He says right now, the association has not yet written to the authorities as it is still monitoring the situation.
“Until now, we have not written to the authorities because we are still monitoring the situation and look at the best option. One of the options is to play the games behind closed doors, secondly is to allow the clubs that have games in hand to play those games and equal to all teams.
“Thirdly, we are looking at delaying the start of the next season so that we complete the current season. From my understanding, there is no single solution for various problems. We are in a different situation. For us, we will remain here as Zambians and will apply a situation in a Zambian way. Yes, we hear other countries have suspended or cancelled their leagues,” he said.
