FRANCIS CHIPALOwrites
@SunZambia
FAZ should consider limiting the number of foreign players in our league and let more local players take part in the game, Zambia Sports Fans Association (ZASPOFA) has suggested.
ZASPOFA patron Pastor Peter Makembo said one of reasons Zambia had been failing to qualify to major soccer tournaments was lack of game time for Zambian players
Makembo called on FAZ to start considering limiting the number of international players in the local league and allow more Zambians to play, adding that doing so would make it easier for coaches to select players for the national team.
He was speaking in an interview with the Sun Sports on Friday night shortly after a public discussion to chat the way forward for the Zambia national soccer which was sponsored by the Daily Nation Newspapers Limited
“Going forward if we want our national team to be performing better, FAZ should move in an angle to find a way of limiting the participation of foreign players in the league and let more Zambians play,” Makembo said.
“When the contracts for current foreign players expire, FAZ should see to it that there is certain number of overseas footballers who should be recruited by our clubs. A club should at least not have more than 5 foreign players,” he said.
Makembo further said that reducing the number of foreign players would make it easy for coaches to pick players for national duty.
“It is only by then that we will be able to select players from that pool and FAZ will be forced to look for local players to fill-up those gaps. At least five players per team then let the rest be Zambians,” Makembo said.
“It is not that our players don’t want to come in but it is the same administrators that do not have confidence into local players and want to go for foreigners,
“The money which our clubs are paying foreign players they can empower even 5 players from a single salary being paid to a professional because one of the challenges we have is that we only want to empower outsiders when we can empower our own,” Makembo said.
