By Edward Chisanga
When the final whistle blew after laboring for over ninety minutes without winning goals, the face of each Zambian was obvious. Zambia had just been doomed to a perpetual football life of wretchedness and anguish – a state only those in denial want to refuse to accept. Chipson was perhaps more affected than I was because he expects nothing less from a team, he is proud to call ‘Chipolopolo’. I don’t.
When I told him that I expected nothing else, he was furious with anger, dismay and frustration which forced him to draw nearer where I was standing and remarked, “Only a non-Zambian wants Zambia to lose an international football match. So, I’m assuming that you’re not Zambian, for how can you be so composed and look as if nothing happened?”
“I didn’t say I want Zambia to lose. Like you, I want them to win all the time. But we are all so used to this immeasurably low and uninspired performance that only those in denial like you will pretend that you’ve a national team. The nickname ‘Chipolopolo’ that you’re so proud of was meant to reflect toughness, fearlessness, athletic, enduring, vigorousness, tenacity, robustness and other related words. I think Chipolopolo in Zambia means bullets. But, important as this name may be, it does not reflect the single most important characteristic of a good football team. You don’t need to be a bullet in order to score goals. Goal-scoring is a product of quality, not bulletness. It is a combination of toughness and quality or skills. In fact, Messi of Argentina is nowhere near Chipolopolo but is the best player in the world. So, my proposal is to remove this Chipolopolo and replace it with something more footballing and more winning mentality.”
In a posture that communicates defiance, Chipson my comrade asked, “How would removing the name Chipolopolo help the team to win next time?”
“You know well that it is misleading to continuously call Chipolopolo someone who is in the final phase of senile decrepitude or simply deficient. The mismatch between the name and meaning of Chipolopolo and what the team does on the pitch is glaringly clear. Zambians are unfair to keep on referring to Chipolopolo when they clearly know the team has failed to live with it.”
He asked, “So, are you suggesting that we should then modify the name to suit the reality on the ground?”
“Now you’re talking Chipson. I understand that when David, the small man defeated Goliath, the giant in the Bible, the latter accepted to change his name to suit his status on the ground. The national team players will be more than happy to be given a more suiting name. They know their overly-growing weaknesses. They know they cannot remediate. Resources are lacking. They’re asked to do more than the resources they have. Most don’t look athletic. I’m not sure about their diet but certainly my guess is that most will agree with me that this is insufficient. Word has it that for many years, or ever since the perished team, there have been calls by many players to redefine the name but some people especially in the PF leadership were resisting. They preferred the existing name.”
“Why would they resist and what do politicians have to do with this?”
“They thought the name masked their economic stains. They’re responsible for the failure of the national team which they failed to provide sufficient funding. They spent public funds on building bad-quality roads, clinics and football stadiums. Yes, they built football stadiums but failed to build a formidable team. For me, it is better to build a good team first, then good stadiums. Otherwise, of what use is a good football stadium without a good team? They built the national team good stadiums but it is foreign teams that come to Zambia to effectively make use of them. The owners of the stadiums look like passengers all the time they’re playing in their own stadiums while visitors look like the owners.”
“I agree with you. The money that PF politicians spent on erecting huge stadiums has not translated into building a quality football team. They also stole too much money and cared less about building a strong and quality national team. It seems correct to state that they were stealing while covering up in the stadiums, roads and bridges. It seems to have become worse when Zambians sat in new stadiums to justify that PF was working for them when it was stealing the bigger part of public funds.”
“But what is it about Equatorial Guinea that makes them beat Zambia? I thought we were a much bigger and stronger country economically?”
“You’ve to look at some stunning and flustering statistics. Zambia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is about $18 billion compared to about half of that for Equatorial Guinea. Zambia’s population is about eighteenfold that of Equatorial Guinea. However, Equatorial Guinea’s per capita is about sixfold that of Zambia. So, while Zambia may be ahead in terms of GDP and population, the actual economic strength of each Equatorial Guinean is much larger than that for each Zambian by measure of per capita. Even with a much smaller GDP, perhaps Equatorial Guinea government is spending adequately on building its national team.”
“And, yes, unlike Zambia, I think many of Equatorial Guinea players play their football outside their country, and in good teams. This is perhaps the main explanation why they beat Zambia. I could be wrong because internet formation may not always be up to date. I searched the internet and found that several players are based in developed countries, more advanced developing countries, etc while most of our players are based in Zambia. The point is that despite being a smaller country, Equatorial Guinea seems to have done better in terms of exporting its players in countries where football is more advanced than in Africa.”
“I cannot agree more with you my comrade,” submitted Chipson who later excused himself to go and attend to his son who was training in football at Heroes Stadium, I too went to pick up my son who had now finished his training with the Barcelona FC based in Lusaka. We both hoped that the new Zambian political leadership would do something different in addressing the problem of shambolic performance by our national team including changing its name from Chipolopolo to something more meaningful and exacting.”
There is no need for changing the name of our football team.
The only thing that has to change in the management of our football is:
(1) Nepotism
(2) Corruption
Work on these and you will see the turn around.
Copper Bullets?
Noble Eagles!?
If the Zambian football female team is called “Copper Queens”, why not call the Zambian football male team “Copper Kings”. Comparing the Zambian soccer squad with the Equatorial soccer team on the basis of the number of players playing in Europe forgets the fact of the nearness of Equatorial Guinea to Europe. Not all is lost with the Zambian football team. The current form of Zambian players plying their trade in Europe and the fact that Coach Beston Chambeshi is beginning to rely more on the Africa cup winning under-20 players is the beginning of better things to come. Those players know each other very well. What is now needed more than ever before is to invest more in their training and preparations for major tournaments. State House should also learn something from the times of KK…
… when he used to host our national team for a meal before or after a major tournament at state house. That recognition that the team is our national flag carrier can help boost the morale of the team. This should be done for both our male and female football teams. The President taking time off to go and shake hands with the team before a match and watch them also serves to encourage them team to perform well. Match winning bonuses should also be a common feature for AFCON and World Cup qualifying matches. So should players’ performance also be incentivized by giving goal scorers some extra money.
The 1994 teams one that perished off Gabon and the bronze Africa cup medalists were products of of a strong loca league anchored on ZCCM sponsored professional clubs. These clubs used to reach finals in continental football. Infact Power Dynamos won the Nelson Mandela cup. The 2012 Africa cup gold medalists were had majority players from Moise Katumbi’s TP Mazembe. TP Mazembe plays very competitive football. It is folly to expect results with a weak local league and few players from countries with advanced leagues.
KK XI.
KK XI.
After all was founding Father & original Soccer fan NOT.
What is in a name? That which is a rose…
It’s a management issue, from primary school soccer to the premier league. The rest is nonsense.
What a trash of an article. Leave PF and its leadership alone, they did everything possible to reignite Football in Zambia.
Football standards have fallen in Zambia because of the current FAZ leadership which has preoccupied itself fighting their own shadow or imaginary enemy at the expense of developing Football. Gone are the days when seven to eight people (Men, Women, Young or Old) you meet in town, streets, public places, markets etc., etc. even at funerals houses would be donned in Zambia National Soccer Team replica jerseys original or fake. The Zambian people ware behind the National Team, not anymore.
CONTINUED
I do recall years back before the current leadership came into office, Zambian athletes who went to some Commonwealth Athletic meeting in UK were reprimanded for donning National Soccer Team replica jerseys as they had gone for athletics and not Football. That in itself spoke volume of how Football was organised under “THE EYES ON BALL” and THE COUNTRYs LEADERSHIP THEN.
CHANGING OF FOOTBALL LEADERSHIP AT FAZ THAN THE NATIONAL TEAMs NAME WOULD BRICK BACK THE FAME AND GLORY TO ZAMBIA,
Kikiki please spare us from the faliers of Kamanga.
kalusha left a good under 20 team.Zambia has great team in Africa.If FAZ can just concetrate on under 20 which won afco and went world cup Zambia will be flying again.
Look at these players:strikers:Patson Daka,Fashon Saka,edward chilufy
Mid:Mwepu and emmanuel banda.
Defence.Solomon Sakala,
You have atleast 6 energetic young players.Can you fail to find 6 players ?The problem is administration.kamanga didn’t want to do with kalusha’s players under 20 (patson Daka,mwepu,fashion,emmenuel banda,edward chilufya,somomon sakala.)
#8 yes what is in a name? We have changed street names but the potholes are still there.
The only thing that remains to change in the current downward trend of the Chipolopolo is Andrew Ndanga Kamanga. We’ve changed coaches 8 times within 5 years and there’s no improvement. Kamanga out! Why can’t you resign on your own?
Raising dust where there’s no soil. The official identity of those players is Zambia national team.
Chipolopolo is a nickname given by the supporters. And @chambwela KG yes there is no need for changing the name.
The only thing that has to change is the management of our football. Get Kamanga out and let’s have a passionate footballer.
Mr Edward Chisanga sir, it would have made more sense had you included how the name ‘Chipolopolo’ came about in the first place. Your article would have given some readers who don’t know the genesis atleast appreciate the way the name changed in 1992 from KK11 to ‘Chipolopolo’. Changing a name is not an issue, the issue is the history, story, culture and endeavor that you would instantly thrown away by not appreciating the genesis attached to it. I am one of the people who advocated for our team to be named ‘The Mighty Chipolopolo’. Further, please leave football out of politics, football is called and I quote ‘The Beautifull Game’ and politics is generally view and referred to as ‘a dirty game’. Kindly, by all means necessary, leave our football outside your dirty games. I…
Take football as a National Sport, with competitions at least at:
!, District levels
2, Provincial levels
3, National level
4.Close the Year with a match between the National Select and the Copper Bullets (the National Team)!
HH 11 it is then!
Here, I don’t mean ‘Chipolopolo’ are losers. I mean, generally, a loser is a loser -regardless of whether the name changes. In fact, am surprised this article’s writer has correctly spelt “Chipolopolo” rather than the recent foolishly distorted spelling “Shepolopolo”. What does that mean??Chipolopolo is Chipolopolo – it has a meaning, leave it like that!
Mame change has nothing to do with performance. You can not change Englands nick name ‘The three Lions’ to the three Cheetahs simply because they have failed to win tournaments since 1966. There is history and pride in those names. We are proud Chipopolo whether we lose or win. Our performance wont improve by changing the name but our pride remains intact in our name. What is needed is proper technical bench may be with the coach.
# Chipolopoloforever#
Chipolopolo belongs to Green Buffalos….The Zambia national team was always known as the “KK 11”…I dont know who changed the name after 1991.
It is not the name that plays football what needs to be changed is Mr Kamanga leave the name alone
Talk of change of names, Why don’t we have Great West ,Great South and Great NorthWest roads yet we only have Great East and North roads, only. Has anyone thought about this disparity?
Andrew Kamanga is a failure in football issues. His hatred for Great Kalu will take Zambian football nowhere so long he is at the herm of Zed Soccer. The answer lies in firing Andrew Kamanga and the rest shall automatically come.
There is no need to charge the name lets not waist time on that just charge the all back room FAZ management staff what is difficult! I think as all Zambian soccer fanatics we should sign a petition to get rid of the FAZ management stuff especially those who are responsible for decision making body!!!