The sun is setting on the Copperbelt as a sporting powerhouse.
While, affluent Zesco United and Power Dynamos will continue to fly the flag on the Copperbelt for the foreseeable future, things are really looking bleak for their struggling provincial rivals.
Legendary football clubs Roan United, Nkana and Mufulira Wanderers are motherless and futures unknown after the mining concerns that have sponsored them over the decades finally closed their cheque books for monthly handout that have helped sustain the clubs over the years.
The current global recession is a major factor and that has also seen perennial strugglers Chambishi FC also without a bankroller for this season and the immediate future.
However, football is not the only sport in a serious state of crisis.
Rugby, the second biggest attraction after football on the Copperbelt, is also facing an uncertain future.
Last Saturday, the Zambia Rugby football Union held its annual general meeting in Lusaka at which five out of the 12 affiliated clubs failed to attend.
Konkola, Roan, Ndola Wanderers, Mufulira and Chambishi rugby clubs all failed to travel for the AGM.
However, only Konkola from no-man’s land in Chililabombwe sent their RSVP citing a bereavement at the club.
The rest, however, did not give a valid reason for staying away.
Roan, like their football club relations from Luanshya have lost sponsorship, so too have Mufulira and Chambishi while community funded Ndola Wanderers is also limping and last season struggled to fulfill its league fixtures.
Moreover, legendary Diggers too have been hit by the economic bug after their life-long sponsorship deal with a major Kitwe-based mining company was also ended this year.
Diggers influence as rugby giants especially after losing their five-year grip on the crown ended last year will be interesting to see this season.
Powerhouse Lusaka on the other hand who wrestled the championship away from Diggers are in rude health and have set the bar in terms of corporate sponsorship in sport and are looking undisputed survival kings in the challenges awaiting in 2009.
Sad indeed. Seems our country has failed in all spheres of national development. Yaba!
What are we going to do about it?
All of us living in diaspora should go and take over the running of our beloved country. Surely, we know how things are done. We can get Zed in the G-20 within a few years.
can other business houses come in and sponser these teams……..otherwise the number of patrons at watering holes will increase magnificently
The only solution is to turn football in Zambia into a professional one otherwise the cries will continue. What i mean is football clubs must become limited companies and employ soccer players and pay them on their own.
Business men where are you? Invest into soccer.
Website yachinja??? Need sometime to adapt.
You have been sleeping for too long Ghostrider, Yachinja kale. Unfortunately, it’s not so user-friendly as it used to be and a lot of bloggers seem to have quit or gone to other sites.
Iyayi naiwe Moderator……balibe chabe ma zali yaku icafe
Sad news indeed for the copperbelt clubs
What do you expect in a country that is run by old time politicians? Zambia is currently stuck in a UNIP/MMD quagmire. There is serious lack of young, dynamic, determined & confident leaders with fresh ideas to spurn development in such areas.
little pololo
Stone age is slowly by surely creeping in. This is what happens when you bring back UNIPISTS. Tough Luck.
Sooner or later all the premier clubs will have no sponsors .Sad indeed
We have gone back to stone age in terms of soccer and other sports. There is no sponsorship, no infrastructure, no motivation. The Copperbelt is dead!!
Guys in the diaspora let us put moneys together and buy one of these clubs. Life is not all about MORTGAGES ,bills and KFC.Imagine 100 of us puting in 150 pounds a month (K 120 million) which is more than enough to run a club .We groom young talent sell them off abroad , win the champions league in 4 years ( share the spoils ) and sale the club (ahaaa ! – not serious ).Please those interested lets go for it
Cry, the beloved country. Not all hope is lost, pick tup he bits and pieces and move on matter what! There is light at the end of the turnnel
zambia is dead
The businessmen of the copperbelt are suppliers/contractors with the mines.They are hardly getting any orders or contracts from the Mines and if they do payments is another issue.Let ZCCM-IH plough back some of it’s profits to these community based teams.Who is benefitting from ZCCM-IH?