In the last five years, Zambian clubs have consistently failed to reach the group stage of the CAF Champions League. At each elimination, coaches repeatedly claim to have learned valuable lessons.

The last team to have tasted group-stage football in the Champions League was Zesco United, which reached the lucrative stage in the 2019/2020 season.

Since then, there have been failed attempts by Zesco themselves, Forest Rangers, Nkana, Zanaco, and Power Dynamos and not forgetting Red Arrows, who have been unsuccessful on two occasions.

Arrows’ elimination at the hands of TP Mazembe on Saturday meant the wait to see a Zambian club play in the Big Boys’ brackets, the group stage, extends to another season.

Like his peers in the past, Arrows coach Chisi Mbewe has hit us with the ‘we have learned our lessons,’ talk. There is nothing wrong with learning lessons, right? We learn every day.

“A lot of lessons learnt,” Mbewe spoke of the club’s elimination, “as a team, we will never be the same again I think we have learnt that when you are competing in such games…you just need to ensure that you don’t allow goals, when you have chances, you need to ensure that you utilize your chances.”

What exactly do Zambian coaches learn in CAF competitions?

It is amazing how our clubs have been ‘learning’ these lessons for a long time now but never implementing what they learn and getting over the line whenever they play in the elite competition.

Not to sound preachy, but listening to coaches talk about lessons these days reminds me of the people Apostle Paul warned Timothy about—those who are “ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.”

When will you ever “come to the knowledge of truth?” That is, applying these things you claim to have been learning.

By the way, it doesn’t require you to play in the CAF Champions League to know [learn] that in a two-legged encounter, keeping a clean sheet at home is gold.

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