FAZ To Handle Its Own Covid-19 Testing Process

FAZ will handle its own Covd-19 testing and monitoring next season after facing huge challenges since the July 18 restart that led to the reduction of the season from 34 to 27 weeks on August 9.

Testing and monitoring was the sole baby of government health management teams that saw massive delays that led to complaints and frustrations from teams over the pre-match verification process.

FAZ President Andrew Kamanga said Football House now has ten weeks to put in place the structure before the 2020/2021season kickoff on October 17.

“So going forward we hope that all the members are going to respect the health protocols because it is very clear that this Covid- 19 is not going anyway any time soon,” Kamanga said.

“If we don’t start, the league clubs are likely to have a lot of financial challenges because they have to meet the players’ salaries and of course the window for the 2020/2021 season registration has now been opened too.

“So these were some of the factors that caused us to make that decision that we should restart the league in October; now others will argue that we were only remaining with seven games and we could have played those games within a month plus five week.

“Yes, we could have done that but the challenge still is as long as we do not have a guarantee that the testing and the results will be there on time, the problems we have witnessed in the last three weeks will still continue.

“We have taken a view that lets give this process a longer period of ten weeks, and in the ten weeks, they are things we are going to do as FAZ and they are things we expect the clubs to do so that come the restart of the league in October, we are all on the same page and manage this situation seamlessly.

“For instance, on our end as FAZ, we are going to invest in the testing equipment and we are going to invest in the reagents and then through the Zambia Medical Association, whom we have already engaged, we hope that they will be able to carry out those tests in consultation with the FAZ Medical Committee so that if we have total control of the testing and results, then we shouldn’t have these problems that we have witnessed in the last three-four weeks.”