MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
@SunZambian
THE forthcoming 2019 transitional league soccer awards have continued being under the spotlight with the omission of Zesco United’s league and ABSA Cup winning Coach George Lwandamina.
FAZ who had earlier declined to make the names of nominees public, rescinded its position on Thursday by announcing the names of the prospective recipients.
But the omission of Lwandamina from the list of nominees has caused a stir in the football circles on social media.
Despite winning the league and ABSA Cup in a space of one week Lwandamina could not make the cut for best coach of the year nominees which had Red Arrow’s Chisi Mbewe, Buidcon’s Srdjan Zivojnov and Green Eagles coach Aggrey Chiyangi.
Several fans on soccer blogs expressed their shock at Lwandamina’s omission from the potential awards recipients despite having won back to back league titles with his Zesco club.
“Maybe George “Chicken” Lwandamina failed an integrity test, Otherwise it doesn’t make sense,
“Chicken won the double bagging the ABSA Cup and the Super Division title,’’ said one of the bloggers James Phiri.
And soccer analyst Franlyn Malambo wondered what criterion was used when nominating coaches for awards.
‘’What Criteria was used?
How is a double-winning coach not on the list?
What are people being awarded and rewarded for?
Anyone with answers, please come forward and help us understand. Good luck in trying to convince us,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, soccer commentator Philemon Tembo argued that Coaches and captains were not in any way involved in nominating the coach of the year.
He said that they only got involved when it came to nominating of coach of the year, young player of the year and the most disciplined player to which they picked their top three in each category.
Mbewe and Srdjan Zivojnov compete for the top award to be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel on July 31.
