A LIVINGSTONE based football coach and administration Patrick Kasoka has urged the Government to consider naming the new stadium to be constructed in the tourist capital after the late soccer commentator Dennis Liwewe.
And Kasoka has noted that the vibrant legacy of Liwewe risk varnishing in the Zambian football fraternity following the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ)’s move to strip him of the Life Member and Appeals Committee member in 2010.
In a press statement released in Livingstone yesterday, Kasoka described Liwewe as an iconic football hero whose legacy should always be remembered particularly by naming of the new Livingstone stadium after him.
“Livingstone, as Zambia’s tourist capital, needs to be blessed with this name so that international tourists coming from all over the world can have an opportunity to view his image inside.
This will be a tourist attraction and a memorable facility because Liwewe was a hero not only in Zambia but internationally too,” he said.
Kasoka, who is deeply morning the loss of Liwewe, said the vibrant legacy of Liwewe might be lost in future if the current FAZ executive did not clarify on why they removed the late commentator’s Life Member and Appeals Committee member status in 2010.
“Between 2004 and 2008 under Teddy Mulonga executive, Liwewe was a Life Member and Appeals Committee member of FAZ.
In 2010, however, the Kalusha Bwalya executive removed this status at the height of two factions within FAZ and unfortunately this status was not reinstated until Liwewe’s death,” Kasoka said.
Kasoka, who is PK Sports Academy director, has challenged FAZ to quote the provision of the Association’s constitution which it used to strip Liwewe from both statuses.
“My other concern is on whether Liwewe has left a lasting or unforgettable legacy according to the current FAZ executive? Will future office bearers at FAZ say 40 years from now remember the iconical personality of Liwewe in Zambian football?” Kasoka asked.
On the issue of Gabon Air Disaster Heroes celebration, Kasoka said he was still mourning for the team which perished in 1993.
Kasoka has since thanked and welcomed the idea by well-meaning Zambians that the commemoration should be taking place every year without or without the relevant authorities.
“Who is by the way FAZ to dictate over families who are so much distressed to be told when we should commemorate this sorrowful event? Is it a wedding ceremony that can only be held when someone has raised a lot of money?
I therefore challenge FAZ to step aside and leave well-meaning Zambians and the bereaved families to do what befits them,” Kasoka said.
He said it was good that Ponga Liwewe, in partnership with Zambia Sports Fans Association patron Peter Makembo, had taken personal responsibility to ensure that the memorial service takes place every year.
“Shunning the 2014 Gabon Air Disaster Heroes memorial service by FAZ is another way of how far they are continuing to expose themselves and making themselves unpopular even before the eyes of God,” Kasoka said.
Much as I appreciate the contribution that the late Dennis Liwewe made to the football and social fabric of Zambia, I think that as a nation, we should learn from our past failures. Stadia are expensive to maintain, we failed to maintain Dag, Independence etc. We need to make them sustainable and not rely on taxpayers for maintenance. One recent innovations is exploiting naming rights to such facilities; Emirates Stadium for Arsenal, Allianz Arena for Bayern München are some examples. How do you sell naming rights for Dennis Liwewe stadium, Levy Mwanawasa Stadium? Why not name a stand after such illuminaries and reserve the naming for commercial exploitation? The Heroes stadium is slightly easier to deal with; You can have a Barclays Heroes Stadium, Lusaka Times Heroes Stadium etc.
@Manlove
Good suggestions Manlove, unfortunately it appears this concept has yet to catch-up in Africa.
“Nyayo National Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. The stadium was renamed to the Coca Cola National Stadium after the multi-national company won the naming rights to the stadium in February 2009. The deal was worth USD 1.5 million and would have seen the beverage company do branding, marketing and naming to the whole stadium for three years. Three months later, however, Coca Cola withdrew from the contract, because the Kenyan government wanted to have the stadium branded as Coca Cola Nyayo National Stadium. But was renamed again to the Nyayo National Stadium, as the Government of Kenya wanted it branded.”
Well said Patrick.The problem with Zambians is that we dont want to honour our heroes.Even Godfrey Chitalu needed to be honoured respectably.No player will ever score 107 and 102 goals in two successive seasons.If the argument is that football was not developed at that time, why were the other players not scoring the 107 goals when Chitalu was scoring them?aaayi man, we need answers.We only want to honour politicians who dont even deserve it.Always full of lies.Why have two big buildings like the stadium in Ndola and the hospital in Lusaka all named after one politician.It was wrong bwana.we should have given the stadium in Ndola to the best of our players.With powers vested in me by all Zambians,i hereby name the Livingstone stadium as DENNIS LIWEWE SOCCER STADIUM.Thanks all Zambians!
Zambians are fascinated with naming of facilities which they can’t even maintain . ..where are these selfsame people when it comes to proposing and implementing worthwhile polices…. you want to put names on things put them against longterm policy programmes.
Wake up!!
With the good observation by PK expect to be banned for life as this is the speciality of the current FAZ Admin.Am very much disappointed by the Great Kalu who even failed to attend the funeral of Dennis Liwewe a person who contributed very much to what Kalu was yester years that he can even be the chipolopolo coach and FAZ president today.
It is just a matter of time before we have Saulosi stadium.Lol
Those criminals led by Kalu at Faz need to be Axed.
Good reading this article. nothing against Late Liwewe but surely stadium should be commercialised – how else will GRZ manage to maintain? impossible copperbelt should b like KCM stadium or Zanaco stadium nomba ati pa chilata kikikiki or nkoloma. In Kenya main stadium was named safaricom (mobile phone company) many people cried but if u go there now they hav refurbished it at least from outside.
some sort of false patriotism tour national heroes does not pay and will not pay.
Please STOP this lunacy of naming our structures after the likes of Denis Liwewe. What achievement did he make?? He was just a football fan, PLEASE!!! He made no contribution to the well being of mankind.
abena suntwe, landeniko fwa mano naimwe.
Ba suntwe what are you sniffing ?
@ABENA DIGGERS TOWN ,
Kalusha visited the funeral House but had to fly to Cairo for the Afcon Draws, hence couldn’t be in two places at the same time. Yes, its a good idea to name a Stadium like the Livingstone one after Liwewe, but we have a problem here because we are producing far too many Heroes than the number of infrastructure to name them after. We however, have to be considerate. I think also, the FAZ factions sponsored by Rupiah Banda were the cause for Liwewe’s stripping of that recognition. Every action has got an equal but opposite reaction. Liwewe was a very good friend of RB, he had to side with Kamanga-Simataa group whilst Kalu was alone, only protected by FIFA.
Liwewe is just worth a street name somewhere in chipata
Nkana Stadium, was/is Scrivener Stadium until ………………………..when were the name changed? very few people can even remember the reason for change. Who was scrivener by the way?