Zambia Football Fans Association(ZAFFA) President, Peter Makembo, says he will engage Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) to allow soccer fans participate in the ongoing National team selection exercise.
In an interview with Lusaka Star, Makembo says he believes that supporters know players better than the leaders hence should be given chance to directly select players.
He suggests that FAZ provincial leaders should be tasked to facilitate the process to engage fans at grassroot level.
“Supporters know players because they are the ones who watch games, they shouldn’t just restrict to academies, FAZ should be action oriented and involve the supper league players,” he said.
Meanwhile, Soccer Analyst, Yotam Mwanza, said he is not in support of the national-wide men’s team selection exercise as he believes that some of the players are not ready.
“The players need first to know how to trap the ball and do zonal marking before they are introduced to the national team and these things are done at the academy levels because if they are directly introduced to the national team they will fail,” Mwanza said.
“Let’s leave the selection to the experts or technical bench and people who can nurture them, when they ripe enough the technical team will spot them out as they play for the clubs and academics.”
He also urged FAZ to involve the Zambian Super League coaches in the selection process, adding that the coaches understand the kind of players for the national team as opposed to bringing raw players from the provinces.
On July 19, 2024, FAZ announced that it will conduct the national-wide player selection exercise for men’s national team to expand the team.