Nkana coach Manfred Chabinga says teams need at least one month to prepare for the resumption of the disrupted 2019/20 season.
The FAZ league has been on emergency recess since early March when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared by health officials.
FAZ has hinted that clubs may be given not more than two weeks to train before the league restarts as proposed in July.
“It is more like we were in the offseason; Players have stayed almost three months without playing so they need adequate preparations. We need at least one month for us to get prepared,” Chabinga said.
The Kalampa trainer said it would be unfortunate if clubs were to be given less than a month to prepare for the league.
“If we get less training time it will be like madalas. This is football and people will be expecting a lot from us. There is no way players can be training alone without competing with each other. You know football is about competing,” Chabinga said.
The ex-Zambia defender admitted that it has been tough for him to monitor players during the covid-19 induced recess.
“Ours is not a fully professional league. Our players do not have facilities for training in their homes like treadmills or other equipment. It has been very difficult to monitor players I am telling you,” Chabinga said.
Nkana, the record league champions, are in contention for the 13th FAZ Super Division title.
Mr. Chabinga wake up and realize that all things being equal the normal thing is to give teams one month to gain their fitness or more. But we are dealing with an abnormal situation because of Covid 19. You as a professional coach should be qualified enough to utilize the two weeks Faz is proposing to your advantage. All teams will be given two weeks and therefore no team has an advantage. Use the little time allocated to ensure that your players are fit for the battle. We don’t want any further delay in the re-starting of the league because we are already hearing that continental games will start soon.The CHAN tournament may be played in August and there are also world cup and Africa cup of Nations qualifiers. Just see what you can do to ensure that your players are fit.