Kalu return excites fans
Written by Millennium on February 4, 2019
MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
FORMER Football Association of Zambia ( FAZ) president Kalusha Bwalya’s return to football has caused anxiety and speculation in the Zambian football fraternity.
Word went round in Ndola on Sunday that the Zambian football icon would attend the CAF confederation cup group game between Zesco United and Nkana at Ndola’s Levy Mwanawasa Stadium to the amusement and anxiety of football administrators and fans from the across the divide.
Those in incumbent FAZ president Andrew Kamanga’s camp were reported to have been incensed by the information that the Kalu would be present at the CAF Ndola’s Levy Mwanawasa Stadium.
“We have information that Kalu is coming to the stadium with his supporters,”
“This is not good for our boss (Kamanga) because Kalu’s would be coming to the stadium to embarrass the president Kamanga,” a source close to Kamanga said
“Abantu bakwe balefwaya ukumweneshamo boss(Kamanga ) ati ba muwele ,elo balelumba Kalu” ( kalu’s people want to embarrass our boss by booing him and giving Kalu a standing ovation, ” he said.
But Kalusha’s close associates refuted the information saying the former FAZ president was not anywhere near the Ndola stadium.
“Kalu is not anywhere near that stadium, the people peddling such information are just paranoid, Kalusha is a gentleman and if you have noticed he has been enjoying his quiet life,” the source said.
Meanwhile some soccer fans and Copperbelt-based administrators were spotted around the stadium clad in T shirts that had Kalusha Bwalya’s solidarity messages .
And FAZ division 2 side Konkola Mine Police president Gideon Mwenya welcomed Kalusha’s return to football following a partial lifting of his 2 year ban by FIFA appeals committee.
Mwenya said that Kalusha’s return was good for Zambian football adding that football should be a unifier.
“It’s very good for our game, football should be a unifier and anyone against his return must have a big problem, Kalusha is an icon ,no one can take that away from him,” he said.