The National Sports Council of Zambia (NSCZ), has expressed concern that most of the football teams in North-western province are employing untrained coaches and using unqualified match officials.
NSCZ Sports Development Committee chairperson Musunka Silungwe told ZANIS that the province requires a lot of technical support in terms of training and certification of coaches.
Silungwe said this after his committee visited Chavuma, Zambezi and Solwezi districts on a familiarisation tour of the province.
“We have travelled the great expanse of North-western province all the way to Chavuma and Zambezi…Zambia has a lot to offer in terms of enthusiasm for sport and talent. However, one of the challenges that we have noticed is that a lot of technical support is required in the province,” he said.
He said the other challenge which the committee discovered was transportation as most teams do not own buses to take them around to make fixtures.
Silungwe however said his committee can devise a strategy of acquiring buses for sporting teams which will be exempted from paying duty.
He has therefore requested all the teams wishing to procure sports goods and buses to contact the National Sports Council of Zambia for help.
He added that lack of sports facilities was another challenge, noting that many football teams are using school grounds.
Meanwhile, Silungwe was delighted to learn that Kansanshi mine has introduced a farmers’ league where villages around the mine area have made their own football pitches.
The mine provides villagers with all the equipment that they need for them to play soccer in an organised league.
Silungwe further revealed that the sports development committee is also trying to promote a policy of the inclusion of the girl child in sports.
“One of the policies that we are trying to promote under the sports development committee is the inclusion of the girl child in sport…countries that have performed well in balancing the participation of young girls and balancing gender are those whose sports have generally done much better than those countries which haven’t,” he added.
He has since encouraged the people in North-western province to support local sports by watching the games.
He explained that the financing of sports is from spectators who buy tickets to watch matches.
Silungwe and his team are in Northwestern province for a five day familiarization tour and are expected to complete the visit to the region tomorrow.
