Emerging reports are that Chipolopolo coach Milutin Micho Sledojevic is planning to quit the job after being frustrated by the football association’s failure to formalise his engagement with the national team.
The Serbian was unveiled as Zambia coach on February 3, but up to now, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is yet to formalise his engagement, meaning that he is working without a contract.
Meanwhile, the situation has driven the national football association in quandary as Micho has expressed his intentions to quit the job.
The move could derail the national team’s preparations as it comes only weeks before Chipolopolo face Botswana in the double-tier Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
However, this is not the first instance for a national team coach to threaten leaving the top job.
Sometime in 2018, the then national team coach, Wedson Nyirenda, also threatened to quit his position citing boardroom politics from some FAZ executive committee members.
In 2012, one of the finest coaches to ever lead Zambia, Herve Renard, threatened to quit over unpaid dues.
There is an incredible lack of respect and consideration. Enough is enough. If nothing is settled before the end of June, I am leaving, the Frenchman said at the time.
Meanwhile, at one time FAZ passed the blame around the appointment of Micho as the substantive head coach of the national team to the ministry of sports for failing to sanction his appointment.
FAZ settled for ‘Micho’, as Sven Vandenbroeck’s permanent successor but reports indicated the Ministry of Sports did not sanction the choice.
Should that be the case this time around, fears are that the countrys football fraternity is in for a bad patch.
Meanwhile, apart from the recent development having the possibility of undermining the national team’s 2021 AFCON preparations. There is also a danger that if it is proved that the ministry is poking its nose in the day to day operations of football maters, the country would risk being fined by FIFA for state interference.