Zambianfootball.net

by Dinamo,

After Zambia’s passage to the quarter finals at the 2010 AFCON in Angola for the first time in the last 14 years, there has been a lot of talk on the performance of Herve Renard and some pundits have argued that the French gaffer is the best coach Zambia has engaged in the last 14 years.

Is Renard truly the best coach???, I think the best and the most fair way to analyse this issue is to go through the memory lane and compare how  coaches performed putting into consideration the resources which were availed to them.

Below Zamfoot Crew pundit Dinamo takes a closer look at the performance of the coaches who have been at the helm of the Chipolopolo from 1997 to date.

FRED MWILA: 1997

He successfully headed the technical bench that assembled a new national team after the Gabon disaster in 1993.

Fred Mwila was again viewed as the right candidate to take over from Danish coach Roald Poulsen who had resigned a year after wining bronze at the 1996 AFCON in South Africa.

Mwila who had to choose between quitting his coaching stint in Botswana and national duty was this time tasked to qualify Zambia to the 1998 World Cup in France and the AFCON which was held in Burkina Faso.

Prior to his first game in charge against South Africa which ended in a barren draw at Independence Stadium, Mwila won a lot of fans’ hearts when he recalled Belgium based legend Charles Musonda, though the Mufurila born failed to feature in what could have been his last game for Zambia due to the injury which he sustained in training.

Mwila was dropped mid 1997 for failing to win a crucial World Cup qualifying encounter against Congo Democratic Republic (the match ended 3-3). Many pundits believed the match which was played at a neutral ground in Zimbabwe due to the Congo Civil War could have enhanced Zambia’s chances of qualifying to the 1998 World Cup. Mwila never had any preparatory matches or any reasonable training programmes to prepare his charges before crucial encounters. He worked within limited local resources during his tenure with an indecent salary.

GEORGE MUNGWA: 1997

He took over from Fred Mwila in 1997. Mungwa was picked from the now defunct Ndola based Lifebuoy FC where he produced the likes of Frazer Kamwandi and Emmanuel Zulu.

His Champaign football brand won us the inaugural 1997 COSAFA Cup and he also managed to keep the unbeaten record at home and qualified Zambia to the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso. His worst defeat was when Zambia lost 3-0 to South Africa to end the dream of making a maiden appearance at the 1998 World Cup in France.

During his tenure, Mungwa never had any high profile friendlies or any reasonable training programmes to prepare his charges before crucial encounters. During that time players arrived a day before or even on the actual day of the game (the case of Elijah Litana when we lost 3-0 to South Africa).Like other Zambian coaches, Mungwa used to get peanuts and the same was never paid to him regularly and FAZ owed him money in unpaid salaries and allowances when he was fired for failing to qualify to the World Cup. MHSRIP

BURKARD ZIESE: 1997-1998

He took over a team which Fred Mwila and George Mungwa had jointly qualified to the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso. Ziese’s physical coaching style faced rejection in the Zambian camp which was preparing for the Africa Cup.

In one of the friendly games against Nigeria, the controversial former Ghana coach played Kenneth Maliloli at centre-half and former Esperance striker did give a good account of himself.

The Germany coach made headlines when he dropped crowd favourite Johnson Bwalya from the 1998 AFCON bound squad for his refusal to take part in the physical training sessions. I remember Jones Mwewa and Douglas Chiwaya running away from the national team camp due to the physical training which the Germany gaffer had introduced. Ziese again surprisingly dropped Kalusha Bwalya from the squad and appointed defender Elijah Litana as team captain. This decision received maximum rejection from the fans who later managed to push for Kalusha’s late inclusion in the final squad though Ziese still refused to hand back the captain arm band to the Great Kalu. After Kalusha gave a man of the match performance in the AFCON opener against Morocco which ended in a 1-1 stalemate, Ziese u -turned with his earlier decision and handed back the captain arm band to the Zambian soccer icon.

To prepare for the Burkina Faso AFCON, Ziese had two international friendlies with the supper eagles of Nigeria. The first game was played at Independence stadium and the second one was surprisingly played at Kitwe’s Nkana Stadium under floodlights .The game at Nkana Stadium was almost abandoned due to poor lighting system. That was an embarrassment and I still cannot understand why people experimented on the Nkana Stadium floodlights ignoring Zambia’s best floodlights just across at Arthur Davies Stadium. Ziese‘s squad then set up a camping base in Gambia for the team to acclimatise to West African weather conditions before the AFCON but the camping  ended up to be an holiday on the Gambian beaches with nasty stories coming out of the camp.

Ziese had a few months to learn Zambian football. He arrived barely two to three   months before the AFCON and his only competitive matches in charge of the Chipolopolo boys were at the AFCON.

As an expatriate coach, Ziese had better conditions than the Zambian coaches who qualified the team he took to the AFCON.

FIGHTON SIMUKONDA: 1998

He had a short stint as caretaker coach after the departure of the Germany coach Burkard Ziese. Simukonda successfully guided the Elijah Litana captained Chipolopolo boys to their second COSAFA title in a row when they beat Zimbabwe thanks to a Rotson Kilambe late goal in a final played in Harare.

BEN BAMFUCHILE: 1998-2000

The 1994 AFCON silver medallist as assistant coach to the Briton Ian Porterfield was brought in to restore order in the Chipolopolo camp after a disappointing outing at the Burkina Faso AFCON.

‘Pabili’ who had just resigned as head coach at Power Dynamos to take up a national job assembled a mixed team of experienced and young players like Moses Sichone, Laughter Chilembi, Francis ‘Koje’ Kasonde, Manasseh Mwanza, Rotson Kilambe, Harry Milanzi from the under 23 side and the likes of Andrew Sinkala, Gift Kampamba, Bernard Makufi from the 1999 FIFA under 20 World Cup squad.Bamfuchile guided Zambia to the 2000 AFCON  which was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria with a 100% wining record in the qualifiers and reached the finals of the 1999 COSAFA Cup.

To prepare for the AFCON, Zambia surprisingly set up base in Miami USA.I still cannot understand how that decision was arrived at. What football is played on the Miami beaches? .To make matters worse, there were no proper arrangements for that camping. We heard of players starving, sharing beds etc.

That was an embarrassment and the team ended up going to the AFCON without any reasonable preparations. Before the AFCON, an appearance fee which was allegedly paid to team captain Kalusha Bwalya also came up. The national team was going into the AFCON divided because players like Davies Phiri, Mwape Miti, Moses Sichone and Andrew Tembo demanded an explanation from FAZ over the alleged appearance fee.

Bamfuchile publicly complained on the issues that characterised his preparations for the AFCON and according to him, his squad was balanced enough to challenge for bigger things at that AFCON.Zambia was eliminated in the first round for the second time in a row with Bamfuchile paying the price for the elimination.

Just like other Zambian coaches Bamfuchile had to work within the available local resources to get the 100% wining record in the qualifiers, a record yet to broken by his successors. Bamfuchile was not given any training programmes to countries with better facilities or even high profile friendlies to prepare his squad but the former Nkana Red Devils defender managed to keep the unbeaten home ground record. MHSRIP

JUAN BROUWER: 2000-2001

After a poor outing at the 2000 AFCON.FAZ decided to bring in an expatriate coach in an effort to bring back the national team on truck.

Dutch coach Juan Browser was then engaged as the new national team coach. In Brouwer’s tenure, Zambia became an average side which could even struggle to compete in regional tournaments like COSAFA Cup.

In the 2002 World Cup and AFCON qualifiers, the Chipolopolo boys made very little impact and the Dutch coach had to wait until the last game against Madagascar to qualify to the AFCON which was hosted by Mali.

Brouwer was suspended by CAF after an incident with a referee in Madagascar and that automatically disqualified him to take Zambia to the AFCON.This was received has a blessing in disguise by many Chipolopolo fans who most of the times doubted the Dutch man’s competence and ability to restore Zambia’s lost glory.

As an expatriate, Brouwer had a reasonable pay though he can have a right to complain for being denied quality training programmes to prepare his charges adequately before crucial encounters.

ROALD POULSEN: 2002

The 1996 AFCON bronze medallist with the Kalusha Bwalya captained Chipolopolo boys was re- engaged as caretaker coach after Juan Brouwer’s suspension and tasked to guide Zambia at the 2002 AFCON in Mali.

Poulsen was this time expected to assemble a team within a short period and bring back Zambia a team that was a football Powerhouse in the 90s back to its glory days. No reasonable preparations were arranged for the team to prepare adequately and the Danish man failed to use his magic this time has he saw his team failing to go past the group stage for the third time in a row.

These were the days of the famous L-Sporto kit.

PATRICK PHIRI: 2002-2003

After his exploits at the national under 20 level were he guided the Andrew Sinkala led team to the first World Cup appearance in Zambia’s football history and his achievements at Nkana FC were he led the scarlet shirted Wusakile boys to their 10^th and 11^th league titles, Phiri was viewed as the right man to restore stability in the national team.

The soft spoken former Nkana FC and Red Arrows FC player who was coaching the senior national team for the first time had a bad stint at the helm of the Chipolopolo boys has he ended Zambia’s 13 years unbeaten home record and failed to qualify to the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia.

Zambia under Phiri even failed to challenge countries like Malawi in the regional COSAFA Cup. Phiri received very little support from FAZ during his tenure. He also never had any high profile friendlies or any quality training programmes to enable him transfer his magic to the Chipolopolo boys and he was later sacked after the humiliating 3-0 beating by Benin.

KALUSHA BWALYA: 2003-2006

Following Patrick Phiri’s under performance, Zambia’s most celebrated soccer icon Kalusha Bwalya took charge as national team technical director and head coach. Kalusha came with an idea to identify and groom new talent for the recovery of the national team.

Kalusha recognised Ben Bamfuchile’s potential and immediately appointed him his assistant coach. He then graduated the likes of Kalililo Kakonje, Billy Mwanza, Isaac Chansa, Songwe  Chalwe, Christopher Katongo, Felix Katongo, Collins Mbesuma, Jacob Mulenga from Peter Kaumba’ s under 23 side and youngsters Clifford Mulenga and Rainford Kalaba to begin a new  era of Zambian football.

Zambia began the 2006 Germany World Cup and the Egypt 2006 AFCON qualifiers looking a more determined side despite being a squad of inexperienced players. Kalusha who was later voted FAZ vice President, an issue that gave birth to the controversial duo roles debate qualified Zambia to the 2006 AFCON after Emmanuel Adebayor’s hat trick in a 4-1 win in Togo and El Hadji Diouf’s lone goal in the match against Senegal at Konkola stadium denied Zambia a place at the Germany world cup.

Kalusha’ s squad lost twice in the COSAFA  Cup finals with what can be Great Kalu’ s most embarrassing moment in his football career coming when he missed a deciding penalty in a final against Angola after coming in as a substitute  from the technical bench to assist his misfiring striking force.

The national team under Kalusha had a training camp in France to prepare for the 2006 AFCON in Egypt. Kalusha failed to take Zambia beyond the group stage at the AFCON and he later resigned as technical director after a poor outing in Egypt to end the duo roles debate. During Kalu’s tenure, we saw the national team camping in countries with better training facilities like South Africa before crucial games for the first time. Unlike other Zambian coaches, Kalu was regarded as an expatriate because of his coaching qualifications and he was getting $10 000.00 per month like other expatriates.

He is still owed money by the Ministry of Sports.

PATRICK PHIRI: 2006-2008

Following Kalusha Bwalya’s resignation as national team head coach, Patrick Phiri bounced back as Chipolopolo coach.

This time Phiri’s outing was much better than his first stint. He continued with the squad Kalusha had started building and won two regional tournaments, the COSAFA Cup and the CECAFA Cup in 2007.

Phiri also managed to qualify the team to the 2008 AFCON in Ghana after silencing South Africa 1-3 in Cape Town. Though Phiri never got a high pay like the Great Kalu, he had some organised training programmes in Spain before playing high profile friendlies with Tunisia and Morocco to prepare his team for the Ghana AFCON.

Zambia played some good football at the 2008 AFCON beginning with a 3-0 beating of Sudan and despite the humiliating 5-1 loss to eventual finalists Cameroon, Zambia still managed to get a draw from the tournament winners Egypt but that was not enough to take the Chipolopolo boys to the quarter finals. The Kalusha Bwalya led new FAZ executive decided not to renew Patrick Phiri’s contract and the former Nkana mentor was later appointed national under 23 coach.

HERVE RENARD: 2008-

After Zambia’ s failure to advance beyond the group stage at the two previous AFCON outings, the new  FAZ executive decided to engage an expatriate coach hoping to bring back Zambia to its glory days.

Names like Germany legend Luka Mattheus, Nigerian Stephen Keshi and Zambian Belgium based former international Lucky Msiska were linked to take up the vacancy.

Little known Herve Renard who was then engaged has physical trainer by Ghana’s Black Stars under the tutelage of Claude Leroy was hand picked by FAZ and given a two years contract with an agreement to allow him engage an expatriate physical trainer of his choice.

Renard who is believed to be getting $16, 000 monthly salary was guaranteed to be bankrolled by Konkola Copper Mines, began his Chipolopolo job with two high profile friendlies the first one against Libya and the second one against Iran before the crucial World Cup/AFCON qualifying encounter against Togo which Zambia lost 1-0.

Zambia under Renard won Bronze at the inaugural CHAN tourney in Ivory Coast but the Frenchman has failed to make an impact in regional tourneys, the COSAFA Cup and the CECAFA Cup in his last two years in charge with the latest one being the embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Zimbabwe in  the  COSAFA final and the shocking CECAFA elimination at the hands of football nonentities Zanzibar.

In the 2010 World Cup/AFCON qualifiers, despite qualifying the Chipolopolo boys to the Angola AFCON, Renard had what could be one of the worst campaigns in the history of Zambian football. The Chipolopolo boys only managed to score two goals in six qualifying games with two defeats at home in a row. With such a poor record, many pundits lost confidence and doubted the Frenchman‘s ability to guide Zambia to a better performance at the Angola AFCON but alas, the Frenchman managed to achieve his target of taking Zambia to the second round for the first time in 14 years after toping the group which included Cameroon, Gabon and Tunisia on 4 points with 5 goals. The French gaffer celebrated this achievement and after blasting the Zambian media for being too critical, Renard has indicated that he will leave if he gets a proposal from a world cup bound African team.

In terms of support, Renard’s tenure has enjoyed a lot of goodwill from private companies like First Quantum Mining who took over the responsibility of paying the coach and the physical trainer and also donated   vehicles for the technical bench, Zambia Breweries became the official sponsors of the national team and Toyota Zambia donated a bus for the team plus many other donations from various companies.

In preparation for crucial encounters, the team has had a number of quality training programmes in countries with better facilities like South Africa, Germany and France and they have also played high profile friendlies with countries like Iran, Libya, South Africa, Morocco, North and South Korea, Ghana (ignoring the circus that surrounded the game in London), Nigeria, Mozambique etc.

This is how our journey has been in the last 14 years. Having looked at the performance of the ten coaches to have drilled Zambia in the last 14 years, it can be concluded that:

• We have demanded for better results from the coaches and the players without putting in place proper arrangements for them to achieve our goals. In the last 14 years we expected to win the AFCON and qualify to the World Cup without adequate preparations. We paid local coaches peanuts and expected them to meet the same targets we gave to the highly paid expatriates. In short, we wanted to reap where we did not sow and the result was first round elimination in 14 years.

• Herve Renard has managed to take us where we have never been in the last 14 years not because that he is the special one, but simply because we have for once tried to prepare adequately for each encounter in the qualifiers and Renard had the freedom to try over 80 players because he had friendly games and training programmes to utilise. This has helped him to build a strong team which everyone is now proud of. George Mungwa, Fred Mwila, Ben Bamfuchile and other coaches in the last 14 years never had the support which Renard has enjoyed in the last 2 years. It can therefore be unfair to say that the Frenchman is the best in this period when other coaches depended on limited local resources with uncertainty on when the next pay was coming. Renard deserves the praise but Ben Bamfuchile, Kalusha Bwalya and Patrick Phiri’s contributions under the circumstances they operated and the achievements that they made also deserves recognition. The 2010 AFCON preps were just spot on, hence our appearance in the quarter finals for the first time in 14 years.