HONOUR Janza says it shows lack of respect for him to go to the Africa Cup without a contract.
And Janza says Chipolopolo’s delayed departure for Equatorial Guinea will affect the team.
Meanwhile, travel hitches have continued to haunt Chipolopolo who appear scheduled to arrive in Equatorial Guinea less than 48 hours before their first group game against Congo DR on Sunday.
In an interview from South Africa, Janza said it was frustrating to go to a major tournament without a contract.
Prior to the AfCON, FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya said Janza had earned himself a contract by meeting the benchmark of qualifying the team to the continental showpiece.
“I need a contract as a way of respect. I will be playing with teams whose coaches have not just contracts but good contracts,” Janza said.
“On top of that, they can’t even move the team in time and want good results. It’s a joke!’’
Chipolopolo, who were initially scheduled to leave on Tuesday, will leave South Africa today and arrive tomorrow.
“Arriving on Friday, just a day before the tournament, it is now a challenge for us to settle. I am not happy with the delay in departure,” Janza said.
Janza last week said he was okay with the team leaving for Equatorial Guinea five days before their first match, saying the time was enough to acclimatise and settle.
But when queried on why Chipolopolo delayed their departure to Equatorial Guinea, acting sports director Raphael Mulenga referred all queries to sport permanent secretary Agness Musunga.
“Yes I was handling that (the travel arrangements) but get to the PS. I am just a technocrat who just takes instructions,” Mulenga said.
When contacted, Musunga who referred the query to Football Association of Zambia, said the government worked with FAZ to facilitate the trip.
“Get to FAZ on that (delay). We facilitate as government, we work with FAZ,” Musunga said.
FAZ general secretary George Kasengele said all travel and logistical arrangements for the senior national team were handled by the ministry, adding that FAZ was only consulted.
“We did not want the team to travel in batches. According to flight schedules, if the team was allowed to travel on Tuesday it mean’t that they were supposed to travel in two separate groups which could have disturbed the training. How do you have one group training and another in transit? So we consulted the team and they refused to travel in batches. In fact the decision to travel on Thursday came from the team,” Kasengele explained.
“Thursday was the only day which had an open Ethiopian Airline plane that could carry the whole team at once. In fact before that we even considered chartering a 40-seater ZAF plane to carry the team, but we were told it was not available. Otherwise all the payments and travel details are handled by the ministry, we are merely consulted. If you ask me about how the Under-17 team is going to move into Niger, I will explain because that’s my responsibility as FAZ, but the senior team is entirely handled by government. So it is the issue of players travelling in batches that we did not agree to, hence settling for Thursday,” said Kasengele.
During the AfCON qualifiers last September, Chipolopolo experienced travel hitches, with the team arriving in Praia a few hours before a match against Cape Verde, which it lost 2-1.
Weeks later, Chipolopolo encountered the same problem when they were travelling to Niger with team arriving barely 24 hours before kick-off.
No proper explanation was given on both occasions, with FAZ and the government blaming each other for the hitches.