Zambia Football-FAZ Appoints Red Arrows CEO Ronald Lungu to Run National Teams Set-Up
Ronald Lungu | Image by Red Arrows
The Football Association of Zambia has appointed Lieutenant Colonel Kambani Ronald Lungu as General Manager for National Teams, effective immediately, filling a post his own General Secretary vacated only months ago.
FAZ General Secretary Charles Chakatazya says Col. Lungu brings a wealth of football experience and knowledge to the national teams set-up, having served in various roles at club and association level. Chakatazya says the appointment is aimed at strengthening the coordination and administration of the national teams.
"We are confident that Col. Lungu's experience in football administration will add value to the national teams set-up. His role will be critical in ensuring that our national teams are well coordinated and supported," Chakatazya said.
Col. Lungu is currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of Zambian Premier League side Red Arrows. Before his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, Col. Lungu served as Team Manager at Red Arrows. He has also previously served as a member of the Power Dynamos executive committee. Chakatazya said FAZ expects Col. Lungu to work closely with the technical and administrative teams at all levels to ensure smooth operations across all national teams.
"We welcome Col. Lungu to this important role and look forward to his contribution towards improving the management and development of our national teams," he said.
Col. Lungu takes over from Chakatazya, who previously held the position before his recent appointment as FAZ General Secretary.
Read alongside Chakatazya's own career path, this is less a fresh hire than a reshuffle inside a small pool of people FAZ already trusts. Chakatazya ran national teams, got promoted to General Secretary in May, and has now installed someone from his own network, a sitting Premier League club CEO, in the job he left behind. That is not unusual in Zambian football administration, where the same names rotate between clubs, the federation and, in Lungu's case, the armed forces: Red Arrows is the Zambia Air Force's own club, which is why its chief executive carries a military rank in the first place. FAZ gets an appointee who already knows the federation's internal workings and needs no onboarding, at the cost of bringing in no outside perspective on how the national teams set-up should change.
The unanswered question is what happens at Red Arrows. Nothing in FAZ's announcement says whether Col. Lungu is stepping down as the club's CEO, and running a Premier League side's administration alongside a national federation role, even briefly, is the kind of overlap that governance-minded observers in Zambian football tend to flag.
