FAZ general secretary Ponga Liwewe on Thursday explained the provisional deal to have Zambia move to Italian sports apparel maker Kappa.
Zambia will wear Kappa for the 2018 World Cup Group B qualifiers against Nigeria at home on October 9 and away against Cameroon on November 7 while Football House and the Italian kit supplier continue their protracted negotiations.
Below is the transcript of Ponga’s interview with the press on Zambia’s prospective new kit:
-ON THE TEAM USING KAPPA FOR NIGERIA GAME
They will wear kappa.
Kappa is one of the companies we are in discussions with.
-HOW FAR THE NEGOTIATIONS HAVE GONE?
In fact we have reached an advanced stage.
Obviously we are in between kit deals, between Nike and Kappa, with time, kit wears out so while in the course of discussions, we have opted for this game to use Kappa kit because we cannot continue to use kit which has reached its sell-by date.
We have bought the kit from Kappa….. you can call it what you want.
-WHY HASN’T A LONG-TERM DEAL BEEN REACHED?
Because it is not a thing you do in one day, when you do a deal of that magnitude, it runs into hundreds of thousands of Dollars.
It is not a deal you deal you can finalise in the shortest time.
-WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NIKE DEAL?
We are also coming from a background where we have been discredited among kit suppliers from the way in the way the previous deal was handled from which conditions were breached with Nike.
And in this line of business, where you have a few main suppliers, you know reputation is an important thing how you handle suppliers you deal with with.
So this has been a baring with negotiations with several kit suppliers, not only with Kappa, but with other suppliers.
It has been an issue that has come up time and again; the way the previous deal was handled and the way it ended.
We live in a failed State that cannot even honour a simple Kit deal, breaching its terms along the way, due to inherent greed, & corruption.
We then expect our corrupt officials in P.F, to get us out of our Poverty quagmire?? Wishful thinking.
DREAM ON ZAMBIANS!!
when you take up leadership you are expected to show leadership and deal with challenges right away and you become responsible for whatever taking place or took place before you took over. on this one here ponga is indirectly telling us that current faz has failed to seal a concrete deal with label suppliers because the previous administration breanched contract with NIKE. Look Mr Ponga this is failure of leadership and lack of negotiations skills on your part and Kamanga Faz admin, all you have to do is to present the facts that you are new administration and committed to uphold the long term deal to who would be kit suppliers and stop talking and looking at failed deal with NIKE. Tell KAPPA that you are interested in building a long term business deal and not temporal deals with…
Uli mukopo sana iwe
Ni chipuba ichi. After the Nike scandal, now level heads are systematically controlling issues. I just worry with this PF style of running things, THEY DO THINGS IN THE DARK! No consultation whatsoever. Zambia 1 Nigeria 0.
We are not surprised
Can someone point at a single thing that this Kamanga has achieved apart from Zambia failing to qualify to the Africa cup of nations in his time? This guy brings nothing good to Zambian football as his CV in Zambian football is a mess. He was Chairman at Kabwe warriors and everyone knows what happens. The club got demoted. He contested those elections out of envy and Jealous for great Kalu. Let football be run by people that know the game. He should have gone into politics or something..
Lol you’re funny!!!
Why did they not arrange a temporal arrangement with NIKE? As former Africa champions we need to be dressed by top brands…..We were told that these guys will be transparent, some time last week or so they signed a deal with MTN or Multichoice. Have they published the details of the deal???
Not only did they fail to qualify for AFCON, now they want to embarrass Zambians by using a bootleg kit? Don’t be surprised if the national team is wearing Manchester United kit with Zlatan, Pogba or Rooney’s name on the back of the the jerseys. Where’s Kalusha when you need him?
Their current deal with Kappa is crazy. How do you wear their kit when you haven’t finished negotiations with them?