Since her appointment in January 2025, Copper Queens coach Nora Hauptle had not received her full salary. However, Minister of Youth, Sports and Arts Elvis Nkandu has told BolaNews that the Swiss trainer has now been paid all her outstanding salary arrears.
“We have paid everything. It was $16,000 for four months, from January to April. Everything has been cleared,” Nkandu told BolaNews in an interview on the sidelines of the Annual Sports Awards at the Mulungushi Conference Centre in Lusaka on Sunday night.
The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) appointed Hauptle as head coach of the Zambia Women’s National Team, succeeding Bruce Mwape, who ended his six-year tenure with the team.
The 41-year-old Swiss trainer signed a three-year contract with a monthly salary of $7,000.
Despite the frustration of late payments, the minister expressed his full support for Hauptle to continue in her role as Copper Queens coach.
“She’s a very good coach. We just need to give her some time to let her acclimatise. And, obviously, we are going to get a lot of good things from her.”
Grant to be cleared
Meanwhile, Nkandu also revealed that Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant, who is owed over K2.6 million, will have his arrears settled within the next two weeks.
“We are looking forward to clearing the men’s coach. It could be next week, but I believe that in the next two weeks, we start dismantling that amount. And very soon, just like the way we’ve done to the women’s coach, in the same way, we’ll do it to the men’s coach,” stated Nkandu.
“We are looking forward to dismantling everything so that, at the end of the day, everyone is happy, everyone is motivated so that they continue tutoring our teams to gain some positive results. You know, when you are demotivated, you can’t give out more. And when you are motivated, definitely, there are a lot of good things to come from the coaches.”
Nkandu attributed the delay in making payments for the two coaches to the slashed budget as a result of the drought the country experienced.
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