An apology to Kalusha Bwalya
Dear Great Kalu,
I HOPE this letter finds you in good health. Well, I write this letter to apologise for wanting you out as FAZ president and celebrating your election loss to incumbent president, Andrew Kamanga. This comes after considering the happenings in our country, Zambia where football is concerned. While you had decent coaches in Herve Renard, Dario Bonnetti and Patrice Beaumelle that led us to three AfCON appearances and a trophy, your rival Andrew Kamanga and his group have given us Wada, Lwandamina, Chambeshi, Sven Vanderbroeck and now Chiyangi. Under your leadership we appeared in all the AfCON editions; 2000, 2012, 2013 and 2015. In all these we were pitted against strong teams during the qualifiers and had to make the cut of 16 team needed at the tournament, sadly since Kamanga took over we have missed both AfCONs; 2017 and 2019, we were even bottom in the last qualifiers in a group consisting of Namibia, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau winning only one game. To add salt to injury, the number of teams was increased to 24 from the previous 16 but still we couldn't make it. I even think we can't make it in our current state even if the number of teams is increased to 52. Last but not the least, at the AfCON editions we appeared under your leadership, there were credible teams participating with us but not now. We failed to qualify yes and are merely watching other teams but guess who has made appearances ahead of us; Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Madagascar, Tanzania, Burundi, Benin and Mauritania. Pride aside, I reservedly apologise and ask for your forgiveness. If it sits well with you, run for the presidency next election so that you restore us to glory days and have our team participating again. Yours sincerely, MBANGA IRVINE ILUKUI, Fayetteville, Arkansas.