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ZESCO United secretary Justin Mumba has said that his club is on course and will beat the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) club licensing deadline.
Meanwhile, Nchanga Rangers president, Bornwell Siwale has expressed disappointment at the number of Zambian clubs at Soccerex African Forum that has brought various experts from the world of football.
Mumba, who is today expected to give a talk at the 2013 Soccerex African Forum that started yesterday in Durban on the fans-supporting the club and the revenue stream, said in an interview that Zesco has already put in place necessary structures as requested for under the club licensing plan.
Zambian clubs earlier this year agreed to introduce the mandatory club licensing, a measure that will see all teams get legal licensing and meet strict corporate governance requirements.
Club licensing is an order from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and world governing body, FIFA, coming two years after the notice for mandatory implementation was made.
Club licensing has a five-point requirement, which will see among other things clubs having a youth team. Introduction of a youth league could bring back the reserve league in the country, a venture which died due to its huge expense on clubs’ meagre resources.
The other point will require all clubs to annually present fully audited books of accounts, just like FAZ does with the clause of one club, one sponsor.
Mumba said the club has already engaged full time staff to efficiently run the affairs of the club and have even gone a step further to ensure that the secretariat learns from other clubs in the region.
Mumba said a group of Zesco club staff would go to Cape Town after the Soccerex to learn how South African Premier Soccer Side, Ajax Cape Town, had is being run including its youth structures.
He said plans were also underway to have talks with Kasier Chiefs to learn more on how they have managed to maintain a strong base,Mumba said while the club receives support from its sponsors Zesco, there was need for the club to come up with its own means of bringing in revenue to sustain the club and that so far it has done well.
And Siwale said Zambian clubs would have learnt a lot in as far as developing the game was involved, including club licensing where a team without a club licence will not be allowed in the CAF inter-club championships.
Siwale said Rangers have equally made progress in as far as club licensing was involved especially that the Chingola side were in contention of winning the league and playing continental football next year.
“Gatherings like this help us to interact and network with other clubs, experts and potential sponsors, but it is disappointing that some clubs have failed to attend such an important event. It is high time we started running our clubs in a professional manner by ensuring that we put permanent structures in place to run the clubs,” Siwale said.
He said Zambian clubs need to interact with other clubs and exchange ideas which would be beneficial to them and that the de-linking of the league from the association was a cry that has been going on for a long time.
