FAZ presidential hopeful Joseph Nkole has spelt out his plan ahead of the elections whose date is yet to be set following a postponement.

FIFA okayed FAZ decision to suspend the elections following the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 which has since been confirmed in Zambia, with three confirmed cases so far.

But Nkole has his eyes set on the presidency and has not put his campaign tactics on hold even in the midst of a deadly virus ravaging the world.

In his ten-point master plan for Zambian football, the soccer administrator stated that he intends to embark on a technical sponsorship for the association, while using the sponsorship to unify the country.

“To embark on an elaborate goal oriented and vigorous consultative and deliberate process as head of the Football Association of Zambia to seek technical sponsorships for FAZ using the various products of FAZ such as the national team, the FAZ Super league, Junior men’s and women’s teams and provincial leagues, this strategy will be premised on the undeniable fact that football, as a national unifier, has the most following of all social interventions in Zambia. Regrettably, the last four years have been about settling old scores and not focussing on the fact that football is now big business and has to be seen as an equal business partner with the corporate world,” Nkole stated. “Currently, FAZ has only two technical sponsors in MTN and Supersport in the communication and Broadcast realms. We need to expand that technical sponsorship base to cover various other fields such as the beverage, hospitality, travel and information technology fields.”

He stated that he would endeavour to work with cooperating partners and ensure that cordial relations exist.

“We will partner with the Government of the Republic of Zambia not only in the sphere of full sponsorship of the Senior National Team but in mutually beneficial ventures such as the as much talked about countrywide talent identification exercise and health and keep initiatives of the President of the Republic of Zambia through the Zambia Schools system and the Ministry of General and Higher education and Ministry of Gender and Community as well as Health in particular,” read his plan.

“We welcome the initiative of the FIFA President to build ultramodern stadiums in the 54 territories of Africa which, when finished, will enable FAZ to host its inaugural Africa Cup of Nations. We will work with sponsors of Super and First National Leagues to embark on improving the local stadium infrastructure in order to uplift the standard of football and bring security not only to the players but spectators as well. In the last four years, FAZ has spent more focus on fulfilling international fixtures at the expense of technical development in the four pillars of football namely Coaching, Refereeing, Administration and Sports Medicine.”

He stated that the last CAF A, B and C licence courses were held in 2016.

“Under technical development falls youth and womens football. No effort has been made to improve these four pillars in four years. The Referees development programmes were done in the last administration and sports medicine and administration courses were last done five years ago under FIFA and the FIFA F-Marc Sports medicine programmes,” Nkole stated.

He further stated that he would lobby regional and world soccer bodies to train Zambian coaches and referees.

“We will strongly lobby CAF and FIFA to bring back the CAF coaches accreditation system as well as training for elite referees as well as sports medicine and management and administration courses. We will also demand that FIFA embarks on an aggressive orientation exercise for the new FAZ executive committee members within the first three months of the new administration,” Nkole stated. “This will assist the new Executive Committee Members appreciate their roles and objectives in running football at national level. We will leave no stone unturned to ensure that coaching and refereeing standards begin to improve as well as you the administrators acquiring latest knowledge of the ever-evolving face of football.”

He stated that an effective FAZ Secretariat was a vital cog in the overall success of the FAZ Executive Committee.

“The FAZ Secretariat needs to be manned by tried and tested (leaders) and in this regard, there will be need to trim the size of the current FAZ Secretariat and make its staff accountable to the members of the Association who they serve on a daily basis…In the end, Zambian football must be the winner…The Super League, in its current form seems to be functioning well but below that lies serious fundamental problems of outreach and coverage,” stated Nkole. “We must ask ourselves whether the creation of additional lower leagues that cannot be sustained in the 10 provinces is necessary or these can be left to be handled at provincial level?”