DOES ZAMBIA NEED FOREIGN PLAYERS QUOTA Part 2?

By

John Moono

Ever since news filtered through that the Zambian FA are planning to introduce the foreign players policy in order to promote local talent and nurturing local talent with the hope of producing some world class talent. The football fraternity in the country is still split over the implementation of this policy and how well it will benefit the country. Many people in the football fraternity and the fans at large are resigned to adding their voice on the matter because they don’t know what number of foreign players will be allowed on each team.

They would rather wait until the FA announces how the policy will be rolled out. However the case maybe, the importation of foreign talent into the local league has a number of merits and demerits. Here are some of the merits of foreign talent into the local league.

1. The importation of foreign talent into the local league helps to improve the quality of the league and makes the games more interesting to watch. The viewership of the local league tends to increase due to the foreign talent that is in the league. Be it at the stadia or on television, more people tend to get more interest in watching the league both locally and Internationally more especially in countries where the foreign talents are coming from.

2. Commercially the league tends to attract more sponsorship because of foreign talent. For example, when Juventus signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, Supersport at the time never had TV rights for the Serie A. Due to this move alone, the pay Television station was able to acquire rights to televise the Serie A. For the Serie A, the league attracted sponsorship and viewership too. Therefore, foreign talent help to improve the commercial image of the league at the clubs alike.

3. Foreign talents helps to improve the competitiveness of the local players. When the position of the local players are threatened in the team, they tend to be more competitive in order to maintain their place in the team. When local players become competitive, they will take their competitive spirit even to the national team. However, it must be noted that this is not automatic. What is actually helps to achieve is to remove complacency in the minds of the local players.

4. Local teams become more competitive in both the local and international club competitions. For example, Zesco United in 2016 went all the way to the Semi- Finals of the CAF Champions League. It is worth noting that the core of the team was the best local talent and foreign talent blended together. And it must be mentioned the team has been the most consistent team in the local league and many local players have remained competitive in order to fend of competition from the foreign players. The greatest beneficiary of this has been the club which is consistently participate in international club competitions every season.

5. The importation of foreign talent into the local league helps local academies to become more organised in the hope of nurturing local talent to compete favourably with foreign imports. The greatest fear which results in curbing the number of foreign players on each team is that of not having enough local talent having the required amount of game time to benefit the national team. If academies get more organised and focus on producing more technically prepared players to meet the demands of the top leagues be it on the African continent or elsewhere, then foreign players should be allowed to flourish in the local league.

Clubs have a major responsibility of producing technically astute players who will flourish in any parts of the world. Club should prioritise academies before a policy of curbing foreign players is put in place.

The foreign players policy if not well handled will ended de- marketing the local league. The league has seen it’s grading improve because of the strides clubs have made in ensuring that the acquire some of the best talents dotted around the continent and beyond. Does Zambia need the foreign players policy?

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DOES ZAMBIA NEED FOREIGN PLAYERS QUOTA?

By

John Moono

There has been a raging debate ever since current FA Chief Andrew Kamanga was quoted saying that effective next season, the Zambian Super League will introduce foreign player policy or quotas. A number of prominent managers in the league have also been quoted voicing their opinions on the said pronouncement from the FA. Even a prominent player in the league has also been on record of voicing his opinion on the policy. The question still stands does Zambia need the foreign player policy or quota? Well, answering this question requires an understanding of the policy and why it is being tutored for adoption in the league. Foreign qouta players is a term in sports referring to the limit of foreign players on a domestic team. This means that teams are only allowed to register a certain number of foreign players on their team. The league organisers are charged with the responsibility of setting a limit of foreign players in the league for each team. This has mainly been necessitated by the teams neglecting or overlooking local talent. The sole aim in introducing this policy in countries that have it, is to promote local talent. Apart from that, the aim is also to attract the best foreign talent to the local league in order to increase the competitiveness of the players in the teams and the league at large. It must be pointed out that it is a dicey policy to implement when it is rush and not carefully thought through. It is also a good policy once it is effectively implemented. In most leagues around the world, the introduction of the Foreign Players Quota has come with it another policy which is implemented sided by side with the foreign players policy and this is the Homegrown Players Rule.The Homegrown Players Rule is an initiative to allow for more domestic players to be developed from an earlier age in the hope of nurturing more homegrown talent. The implementation of this rule requires that the country has well organised academies from which the nurturing of homegrown talent begins. This now means as well that each team in the Super League needs to have a running academy from which the team will pick it’s homegrown talent and promote to the first team. It is this rule that helps to qualify the foreign players policy. This is because it states clearly what it means to be homegrown talent. The homegrown rule doesn’t state the nationality but clearly puts out that any talent from any nationality provided they have been in a local academy for a period of not less than 3 years.The league organisers have a serious task of making the clubs understand the importance of the foreign players policy and clearly defining the terms of the policy. The league organisers need to categorise how the registration of players should be for teams by stating the number of slots for homegrown talent on the team and number of slots for foreign players. They also need to state how many foreign players are allowed on each team on the match-day and how many homegrown players are allowed on each team on the match-day. The league organisers can even go beyond by segmenting the foreign players policy into different regions of the continent in order to widen the pool for talent search by the clubs. The foreign players policy has much to do with the taxation policy of the government. In some countries, in order to promote homegrown talent, players classified as foreign players upon registration are taxed differently from the homegrown players. Usually the homegrown players enjoy a lower tax band as compared to their foreign counterpart. The foreign players policy needs a lot of education before it is implemented. Football stakeholders need to come an understanding of why the policy should be implemented in the Zambian Super League.

AFRICAN LEADERS

Africa has long be seen as a benighted continent. Despite being seen as the dark continent, African leaders have long been in the news for the wrong reasons. Allegations against corruption, dictatorial tendencies when in authority and crimes against humanity have all been leveled against different African leaders both past and present . Longevity has also been a hot issue in African news and other said to be altering their constitution just to remain in power.  Who bewitched this continent?