On Friday, 15th December, MTN/FAZ super league awards were held at Moba hotel in Kitwe to appreciate the best performers of 2017.
The concept is something refreshing to each and every one who loves the Zambian game but is things being just ‘okay’ something we should all be content with?. The current status quo to this effect leaves much to be desired and in this article I will try to highlight and address some of the matters that I feel can be worked on .
WHAT ARE THE AWARDS FOR? THE LEAGUE OR NATIONAL TEAM?
The awards are called ‘ The MTN/FAZ super league awards ‘ in natural sense they are about the league right? well it seems me and you are wrong about this. Some awards have raised eyebrows like how a Paul Banda who played 37 out of 38 games for Lusaka Dynamos who actually finished third never made the cut for young player of the year award? .
Solomon Sakala was a consistent player for Napsa Stars and even wore the captain’s armband in a number of matches but was also overlooked. Chris Sakulanda and Lameck Banda did not play as many games as the two players mentioned above but managed to make the cut.
Lameck went on to win but how was he voted ahead of Edward Tembo ? because his best performance was at the U17 COSAFA youth Championships in Mauritius were he netted five times leading Zambia to the title.
In the league he scored three goals same number as Edward Tembo who is a defensive midfielder. Now how Beston Chambeshi beat Numba Mumamba for coach of the year but then again he won Zambia it’s first U20 AFCON but his captain was not even nominated for young player of the year which is a bit confusing.
There is an aspect of coaches and captains being involved but are they given guidelines on how to vote or it’s just about who likes who?
FAN INVOLVEMENT
The reason football is even played is because of the fans. They are major stake holders who need to be involved in every stage of football development which is why it’s a little shocking to notice that The fans don’t even have an award they vote for as their own.
Fans want to feel like they are in control and they are respected something Europen clubs offer them and we raise eyebrows when they chose European content over our football, Well it’s not their fault.
Going forward FAZ and MTN need to introduce an award or chose from the already available awards one which is hundred percent voted for by fans. FIFA have the Puskas award for the best goal even Zesco United have a fans Player of the year award .
GOLDEN BOOT OR CUP
A top goalscorer world over gets a golden boot . It’s something symbolic of a boot mostly used to score goals but well Mugalu walked away with a cup for his heroics. The Zesco United glass awards in my opinion are actually better offer than that cup. His name and goals can be engraved on that glass award and it will reduce eyebrows being raised than what we witnessed on Friday.
I don’t know if it’s just me but that seems so off and Zambia being a country were everything is politicised the current administration did themselves no favours here.
PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH
The coming of social media has brought a new and different dimension to how the issue of televising content now works. Both Facebook and Twitter have an option for ‘going live’ and one wonders why both MTN and FAZ never thought of taking advantage of this feature to televise the awards to the fans in the absence of a traditional media partner ?
OTHER MINOR DETAILS
Games are now televised on Supersport and it is now easy to make videos of the nominees to highlight their performances but to my surprise no such thing happened at Moba hotel.
Times have changed and we need to move with change but it seems the organisers of the Zambia super league awards are yet to realise how that works .
Another thing that caught my eye was the little information given about legends who were tasked to hand out awards. It’s either the presenters research was thin or they were not told those names in advance so that they prepare adequately to help spice up the awards with facts and records of the legends. Hopefully this can be corrected next year.
And how is it that dummy cheques had mispelled words. That’s a very serious error which needed to be noticed and corrected prior to event otherwise Africa had a field day trolling Zambia .
Caoch or coach ?The awards are very welcome but things need to change for the better. Zambian football is growing and it has sparked interest across Africa which means alot of eyes are on us and we can’t afford to take things for granted no matter how small they might look.
I totally agree,there is a big room which needs improvement. I also feels that fans should be involved in voting player of the year.
And we even invited danny jordan why can’t we ask how they do it in SA. I know someone will say we like comparing ourselves to south Africa but if there are things they are doing right i see no reason why we can’t learn from them