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Fighton Simukonda
The Football Association of Zambia (Faz) has dismissed reports suggesting that Fighton Simukonda has been relieved of his duties as trainer of the Zambia U23 squad adding that only the football governing body’s Executive Committee had a say on the matter.
Faz spokesperson Nkweto Tembwe toldfazfootball.com on Friday that the Executive Committee had not met to discuss the matter.
“I would like to make it clear that Fighton Simukonda is still the coach of the Zambia U23 national football team.
Decisions to hire or fire a national coach are the prerogative of the Executive Committee of Faz,” Tembwe told fazfootball.com on Friday.
“The team only returned a few days ago and no meeting has been held by the Executive to review the performance of the U23.
“The Executive Committee which is the body which makes decisions on the fate of our coaches has not convened any meeting to discuss and make a stance on the matter,” he said.
Reports of Simukonda’s dismissal followed a poor performance by the U23 national team at the 2015 U23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal where they were eliminated at the group stage without registering a single victory.
Zambia lost their Group A opening match 2 -1 to Tunisia before they gave up a 1 – 0 half time lead to lose the second match 3 – 2 to Cosafa rivals South Africa.
Despite giving a good performance in their final group match against hosts Senegal, Simukonda’s men succumbed to Mahamadou Diallo’s 4th minute header to lose the match 1 – 0.