Despite the newly promoted Super League side suffering defeat in their week 6 fixture to the Mazabuka-based side MUZA FC, the players and members of the team’s technical bench have been rewarded with a sum of One Thousand Kwacha (K1,000) each by the club’s exco.
The exco said they decided to reward the players for putting up a good fight which deserved a win, as they displayed top-level fighting spirit despite being down due to poor officiating which affected the outcome of the results.
They believe some games are lost in football even when the players and their technical bench have put in a 100% performance due to factors they cannot control hence a reward is in order.
According to a Facebook post published on Wednesday by the club’s official page, the exco said it desires for football to win at all times and they decided that their 2-0 loss, “painful as it is needs
to be rewarded.”
“The players were exceptional and you cannot fault them for losing the match,” commented the club vice president Shapi Shachinda.
“It is unusual to reward a team when they drop points and this is probably the first time in the
history of this prestigious club that such a decision has been taken. We have not heard of any
other Zambian football Club that has done so in the past, but it is for a good reason and we hope
our message will be clear to the football fraternity,” he added.
Shachinda said the club’s executive is putting in their best to ensure they motivate the players and the technical bench so that they bring back the winning glory of the Chingola based club who gained promotion to the Super League after a brilliant campaign in the National division one last season .
Rangers last weeked cried foul after the match as they accused match officials of poor officiating in their week five fixture against MUZA FC at the Nakambala stadium in Mazabuka.
The team which was enjoying an unbeaten run in the Super League having played four games without recording a defeat felt the referee and his assistant officials were biased against them despite dominating play in a match that saw their strike Miguel Pedro’s goal “unfairly” ruled out for offside while the home side scored via a “questionable penalty” given in the 13th minute through Andrew Phiri who later doubled the lead to secure victory for MUZA.