Poor flair worry former stars

...as Mbesuma moans over Zambia's absence at Afcon

FORMER Chipolopolo stars Collins Mbesuma and captain Christopher Katongo have bemoaned the lack of quality so far at the on-going Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

And Mbesuma said it is painful to watch the Africa Cup with Zambia not being part of the 24 teams that have converged in Cameroon for Africa’s biggest tournament.

Mbesuma and Katongo, who won the cup with Zambia in 2012 has been less impressed with the performance of some teams at the tournament.

Mbesuma said that with the talent at its disposal, Zambia deserved to compete at the Afcon tournament.

"It is painful because if you look at how teams are playing you wonder how or what happened for Zambia, a footballing nation to miss out.

"I believe we deserved to be at the Afcon. With the players we have, we deserve to be at the Afcon. Look at the football we are watching, apart from Nigeria who were impressive, I think we could have done better than some of the teams we have watched so it is very sad we are not there but hopefully soon we will be able to get back to the Chipolopolo we know," said Mbesuma who is supporting Zambia's neighbours Zimbabwe and Malawi to impress in Cameroon.

Meanwhile, Katongo is disappointed with the flair of the game being exhibited by teams in Cameroon.

“The African flair for example, I don’t know why it is a little bit down, for sure there are some inexperienced guys going there for the first time so we cannot blame them, but these teams that we know, those need to show they have experience so that the cup can have that African flair,” Katongo said.