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Rangers play on, wait for FIFA |
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KCM-SPONSORED Nchanga Rangers says it will continue fulfilling its FAZ/KCM Premier League Division One fixtures for 2009 while waiting for world football authority FIFA to make a ruling over their disputed demotion from the Premier Division. |
Nchanga Rangers Vice-Chairman Jim Chongo told Konkola News the decision to start playing Division league games was for the benefit of the players whom the club did not want to keep idle pending FIFA's consideration on the three month-long case.
Chongo said all Rangers would play in the second-tier division for as long as it took for Fifa to determine its appeal on the decision by the FAZ to relegate the club at the end of the 2009 season.
He said morale was high among the players who were working hard to ensure a quick return to the Premier Division.
“We are happy that support has come from our players who are training hard to record positive results in all the games despite the demotion”, he said.
Until the boardroom decision to relegate the club which finished, Rangers had enjoyed the distinction of being the only club in the top tier of Zambian football never to have been relegated since organized football kicked off back in 1963.
Rangers finished the league season in joint 12th position with Lusaka Dyamos but the Chingola side held an inferior goal difference and with the points from a disputed match with Chambishi withdrawn by the FAZ after initially being awarded, Rangers finally took the dive.
Rangers had argued that Chambishi had used to of their former players without having properly acquired them. Chambishi said the players had been released by Rangers and therefore freely available to them.
A FAZ committee hearing initially agreed with Rangers but an appeals committee quashed the verdict and after the National Sports Council refused to hear the case, Rangers took the dispute to Fifa which is yet to rule on the case.
Chongo said since the club was not given chance for a fair hearing by concerned local adjudicatory bodies, the club felt the only solution was FIFA whose motto is “fair play”.
Chongo said it was pleasing to see that Rangers' supporters have not given up on the team but had continued to support the efforts of the players to get back to the big league as soon as possible.
He said it was up to the players and the technical bench to repay the supporters by ensuring they clinched promotion back to the Premier Division at the first time of asking.
“The fans are doing their part and while we wait to hear from Fifa, the players must do their part on the football field,” he said.
Author: Martha Namanje Date Posted: 2009-05-12 |
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