The decision of who would lead Zambian football’s top seat for the next four years rested with 86 councillors last Friday at Kabwe’s Misuku Lodge. Adrian Kashala, Andrew Kamanga, Emmanuel Munaile, and Keith Mweemba were all in the race, but it was the FC MUZA proprietor who emerged victorious, securing 45 votes.

Kamanga received 20 votes, Kashala garnered 17, while Munaile failed to register a single vote.

The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president is both a privileged and powerful man. The elected individual becomes Zambian football’s chief ambassador, legally representing the association at all levels.

According to Article 38 of the FAZ constitution, the president is primarily responsible for “implementing the decisions passed by the Council and the Executive Committee through the General Secretariat, ensuring the effective functioning of the bodies of FAZ so that they achieve the objectives described in these Statutes, supervising the work of the General Secretariat, and managing relations between FAZ and its Members, FIFA, CAF, political bodies, and other organizations.”

What’s the FAZ president’s main role?

The four men were ‘fighting’ for the privilege to chair FAZ annual general meetings, emergency general meetings, executive committee meetings, and other committees where he will be appointed chairman.

It is indeed desirable to be the FAZ president because the position comes with significant constitutional powers to shape the association’s leadership team. The FAZ president, now Keith Mweemba, holds the sole authority to appoint or remove the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary, “subject to ratification by the Executive Committee.”

Read this carefully: “The Executive Committee shall not unreasonably refuse or delay such ratification; if such ratification is refused, the President may propose the appointment of another person(s) to the office(s) in question and shall submit the appointment(s) for ratification; and where applicable, if the Executive Committee refuses to ratify the second proposed appointment(s), it shall be invited to ratify an appointment for the third time, but the third appointment shall take effect irrespective of whether such ratification is refused or is delayed for a period of more than seven days.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as “any additional powers of the President shall be contained in the internal organization regulations of FAZ.”

Do you still think people are fighting for nothing?

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