Civil, Silver for raw talent

Capital City giants Silver Strikers and Civil Sporting Club have disclosed that they would focus much on promoting players from their reserve sides next season.

The two giants endured mixed fortunes this season as Silver claimed the Airtel Top 8 Cup whereas Civil finished empty handed for five consecutive years.

But in an interview, Civil General Secretary, Ronald Chiwaula said effective next season the club would no longer buy rejects from other teams.

“We have trusted experienced players but results are not coming. We are going back to our way of scouting raw talent from the rural areas and polish them,” he said.

Before the start of the season, Civil brought back defender Emmanuel Zoya from Nyasa Big Bullets and bought Dan Kumwenda, Blessings Kameza, Timothy Chitedze and Mohammed Sulumba.

But the team finished the season with two consecutive home losses against Bullets (1- 0) and Mzuni FC (2-1).

Chiwaula said there were positives in the 2019 season despite finishing empty handed.

“The good thing for us was that we secured some sponsorship for the team like kits,” he added.

On his part, Silver Chairperson, Peter Chando, while saying management was still waiting for the report from the technical panel, said the club values players from the reserve side.

“It is a possibility that we might get some players from the reserve side. The idea to have the reserve side is for us to promote good players to the senior team every season. We will seriously look into the issue before next season,” he said.

Silver finished the season on fourth position with 53 points, behind third placed Blue Eagles on goal difference whereas Civil settled for fifth spot on 44 points.

Local clubs spend huge sums of money buying players from other teams to strengthen their squads