Soccer administrator Ricky Mamfunda says government in conjunction with FAZ should take a holistic approach to tackle the surge in the number of players and staff testing positive to the COVID-19.

In an interview with Goal Diggers, Mamfunda said concluding the league prematurely would be a better option in the wake of an increase in players testing positive to Coronavirus.

“Definitely closing the league prematurely would be a good idea. My view is this, look, the number of COVID-19 cases among players and staff seems to be on the increase and football being a contact sport, we are at risk of being infected or affected by the rising number of COVID-19 cases so for me I would urge the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) and other stakeholders like the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Sports to look at this whole issue holistically because whatever the case, it is not worth it to lose a life just to fulfill a fixture,” he said.

“We are better off if the league is suspended or cancelled and once the virus has been contained we can start afresh as long as we are in very good health. I think we cannot risk our players and officials and any other members of staff and people that are involved on match day. So I, think the best is for FAZ and Ministry of Health to clearly look at this issue holistically.”

He also said the Ministry of Health should check the compliance levels among Super League clubs on testing for COVID-19 to ensure that all players are tested.

Mamfunda said that football is not important than the lives of the players adding that the lives of those involved in football should be given first priority.

“And also we need to check how and if there is compliance in terms of testing among super league clubs because you may find that some teams may not take their players for testing because they don’t want to risk the so called key players from not participating in a game. So the bottom line which should be underlined is that football cannot be bigger than a players life. We can even play our football once the disease has been contained.”