Under-17 women’s national team depart with US$2,000 each

THE under-17 women’s national team players yesterday left for United States of America with  ‘fat pockets’ as Government honoured its pledge of paying US$2,000 (about K10,000).
The pledge was made last November after the team qualified for the 2014 Costa Rica World Cup.
Minister of Youth and Sport Chishimba Kambwili, who was with his deputy Christopher Mulenga, paid the players at Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport before the team’s departure for San Francisco, California.
The team will be in California for intensive training.
The money was paid through delegation leader Lenny Nkhuwa.
Kambwili said Government will give the team both moral and financial support.
He said his ministry is happy to fulfil the pledge.
“I wish to announce that the money is ready and how it will be paid, it’s up to the Football Association of Zambia to decide. Let me take this opportunity to warn the technical bench and everyone who is responsible for managing of the team. When there are issues of allowances as it was, please do not mislead the young girls to raise such issues at wrong forum.
“There are ways of presenting issues and I expected that you should have sent the permanent secretary [Agnes Musunga] or the FAZ president [Kalusha Bwalya] to air your views and not to wait when Charlotte Scott [Vice-President Guy Scott’s wife] visited you at the stadium to raise the issue. Like I said, I was going to put my head on the chopping board because the money was not budgeted for. So you expect that there should have been delays in paying the money,” Kambwili said.
He said he does not want to see a repeat of what happened a fortnight ago.
The minister implored the players to ably represent the country in Costa Rica.
Kambwili said he expect the team to perform wonders by bringing the trophy to Zambia.
And Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) vice-president Boniface Mwamelo, who travelled with the team, said the association will respect the player’s choice on when they should get the money.
Mwamelo said FAZ never doubted that government will honour its promise.
Meanwhile, DIANA MUTAKAFIMBO and YANDE KAPEMBWA report that under-17 players are upbeat about reaching the final of the 2014 Costa Rica World Cup.
Team vice-captain Memory Phiri said the team is still making history.
“We have done so much and we are confident of reaching the finals. We are still making history, we didn’t just qualify. We qualified to compete and we will compete favourably,” Phiri said.
Midfielder Irene Lungu said the team is not scared of any opponent.
“All the teams that qualified to the World Cup went through qualifiers just like us. We all have equal chances of reaching the final and we will utilise our chances,” Lungu said.
And UNICEF country representative Hamid El-Bashir Ibrahim says the players have not only made history for themselves and Zambia at large but for the entire continent.
“We consider you as ambassadors for children and girls globally because girls globally are facing so many challenges in terms of school dropouts and not achieving much but you have proved that girls can achieve more. You have become role models and we want all the girls in the region to follow your footsteps,” he said.
Ibrahim said UNICEF will organise trips for the team upon return from Costa Rica as a way of appreciating the team’s achievement.