Friday, March 29, 2024

NOCZ says FAZ missed deadline to accredit Shepolopolo

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The National Olympics Committee of Zambia has pointed the finger at FAZ for late submission of accreditation as reason for Shepolopolo Under-20 teams failure to take part at the 2019 All Africa Games.

Shepolopolo withdrew from the ongoing quadrangular event currently taking place in Rabat, Morocco from August 16- 30.

The Women’s Football tournament will run from August 17-29.

NOCZ president Alfred Foloko said in a press statement that FAZ submitted the official team list after the July 31 deadline.

“The National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NOCZ) regrets the failure by the Zambia Under 20 Girls National Football Team to participate at the ongoing All Africa Games taking place in Morocco due to logistic challenges,” Foloko said.

“As the main body responsible for the accreditation for All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games, we wish to provide a correct position that led to the failure of the Girls Football Team to travel to Morocco.

“NOCZ works under strict Rules and Procedures laid down by the Games Organizing Committee when dealing with the accreditation and travel arrangements for the participating teams, which is the case with the 2019 All Africa Games, currently taking place in Morocco.

“Therefore, all Sports Federations are consequently required to follow these Rules and Procedures and adhere to timelines given by the Games Organizing Committee for submission of athlete names, sport entries and Team travel itinerary for purposes of accreditation.
“As regards the failure by the Under 20 Girls Football Team, NOCZ wishes to set the record straight as follows:

“1. All Sports Federations who qualified for the All Africa Games were expected to submit the names of their athletes to the NOCZ for purposes of accreditation before the Games Organizing Committee (Comité d’organisation Des Jeux Africains de Rabat – COJA) deadline of 31 July 2019. All participating Federations submitted the names and their respective budgets with the exception of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ).
Consequently, NOCZ submitted the received names of the Zambian athletes to COJA by 31 July 2019. It should be noted that FAZ had not submitted names of their team or indicated their intention to participate in All Africa Games by the deadline.

“2. On 11 August 2019, long after the accreditation deadline had closed; NOCZ was informed that the Girls Football Team will be participating in the All Africa Games. NOCZ worked tirelessly to obtain late accreditation of the team from COJA and pushed for the possible late arrival of the Girls Team by 14th August 2019.

“3. We understand that FAZ made their own arrangements for the training and were confident that the Team would travel from South Africa to Morocco after the COSAFA tournament.
Meantime, the NOCZ instructed its Chef De Mission (CDM) in Morocco to make an urgent check and clear any outstanding dues to COJA in relation to the Girls Team participation at the All Africa Games. All that was done at short notice.

“4. We are, therefore, saddened that FAZ, as our affiliate, did not inform us about their participation at the All Africa Games. As earlier alluded, accreditation closed on 31 July 2019 and FAZ only submitted the names to NOCZ on 13 August 2019 for the Team that was expected to arrive in Morocco on 14 August 2019.

“Finally, we wish to state that in line with this, our Technical Committee works with our Sports Federations to include participation of their athletes in our longlist to Government in determining the Team size and addressing all logistics to attend these games. A good example is that of CHESS, which was not part of the initial list but was later included after confirmation from the COJA and the Africa CHESS Confederation.”

4 COMMENTS

  1. Sit down, its water under the bridge, nothing much you can do…….. just sit down with FAZ and sort this administratively to set the future straight, and not in the press like this. Twalasebana.

    • The thing trying to blame other thing is also just piece of shiit. These things have offices in the crime-scene city of Lusaka. If that Foloko had a problem to get a hand written list of girls to play in African Olympics, why didn’t he take a minibus to Minister of Sports and to Minister of Lusaka Province to say moneni ifyo Ba Kamanga not interested in the National Sports, where his Patriotism?
      Uwanya ichisushi tafwisa mate, but these bastards are wiping asses and blaming each other. Mwebwamwe.
      You bastards call yourselves “Patriotic Front”. Be patriotic to girls, one should have died from sleepless nights for those girls, but you behave like monkeys in Forest 27. You just jumping from one tree to the other, and no LEADER is controlling you.

  2. This current FAZ committee has lamentably failed the people of Zambia and should just go. This is uncalled for and unprecedented, that Zambia can be failing to qualify to the African soccer showpiece (AFCON) and let alone fails to take a team which has already qualified to the All Africa games. We need people who are capable. Come the next elective FAZ AGM, let this people be voted out.

  3. FAZ President do the honourable thing and resign. You are very incompetent. You have robbed the girls exposure and their careers. As if that was not enough, you tried to blame the Government.

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