BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Zifa president Felton Kamambo has expressed his satisfaction with the new Warriors’ kit recently unveiled by British sportswear firm Umbro ahead of the national team’s participation at the 2019 Cosafa Cup in Durban and Afcon finals in Egypt, where they will open the show with a date against the hosts in Cairo on June 21.
The new national teams’ home and away strips have been met with mixed reactions from local football fans with others giving the thumbs-up to the simple and plain design, while others feel Umbro could have done a better job to provide the Warriors with a better kit.
Commenting on the emotive issue for the first time after the association’s annual general meeting (AGM) in the capital yesterday, Kamambo said his board was happy with the quality and designs of the kit provided by Umbro.
“I’m happy with the deal with Umbro, normally when you engage a kit supplier it means you are ready to wear the type of kit they are manufacturing. Although some have questioned the quality of the kit, as a board we were happy with the quality and the design as well. We have about four types of designs and I think everyone is catered for on the type of kit that you want,” Kamambo said.
The Zifa boss also revealed that his association was set to benefit financially from their relationship with Umbro through the sale of replicas to fans.
“What we agreed with Umbro is that we are going to get our benefit on the number of replicas manufactured, after that that we will get our part. Instead of getting (our share) in monetary terms, we would want it in replicas equivalent to the value that we are going to get from the deal and then we will sell the replicas,” Kamambo said.
His sentiments on the Umbro kit came after the local football governing body held its first meeting for the year.
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The Zifa boss revealed that his association would for the first time be distributing equipment and RTG $820 000 from its FIFA funding to all its affiliates.
“We had a fruitful discussion with the congress where we briefed them on our achievements to date and where we want to take our football going forward. At the same time we also bought some equipment for all our affiliates, also for the first time as Zifa we will channel some funding all our affiliates,” he said.
Among the other key resolutions reached during the AGM was the congress’ decision not to approve Premier Soccer League (PSL) season changeover until research and consultations with affiliates has been concluded.
The Zifa congress also approved CAPS United’s proposal to amend Article Section 1(a) of the association’s constitution to have the elected PSL chairman in the Zifa executive committee representing the top-flight league, whose 18 members will still have one delegate each in the congress.
Zifa board member in charge of finance, Philemon Machana, revealed that the association had made headway in settling its legacy debt by engaging various creditors and agreeing payment plans
“We have started the process of re-engaging our creditors and paying them and we anticipate that by next year the issue of the legacy debt will be a thing of the past,” Machana said.
