Avram Grant, the head coach of Zambia has hit back at the alleged accusations by winger Fashion Sakala about team selections. Sakala accused Grant of selecting players based on his relationship with his agent Nir Karin. Grant was not amused by Sakala’s stance.
“I don’t know why instead of calling me , he goes to the public. In my 51 years of football, I have never faced a reaction like this, lies like this to save himself. Take responsibility for your behaviour, what happened? Everyone makes mistakes, I make mistakes. My job is to put mirrors in front of mistakes but lies like this,” the former Chelsea coach told a media briefing at Football House in Zambia.
Grant believes that Sakala’s bitterness stems from being left out of the starting eleven during AFCON.
“Against Morocco, I decided to play in that position Lameck Banda instead of Fashion Sakala because I thought his work ethic was not enough to play against the best defender in Africa, Hakimi,” explained Grant.
The Israeli coach spent a good time explaining the Sakala saga which erupted due to a leaked audio recording. In the recording Sakala allegedly accused Grant of forcing players to be aligned to his agent in order to get call-ups to the national team. Sakala warns that Grant and Nir Karin are “killing Zambia football.”
“But more especially, he accused me of things that no one has accused me of in 51 years of coaching, I have coached everywhere, I have dealt with everyone and nobody has accused me like this. Let me be clear, it’s false accusations, it’s complete lies, each word of this,” retorted the experienced coach.
In his defence, Grant pointed out that he had also left out Kennedy Musonda in previous games. Musonda is back in the fold for the next World Cup qualifiers. Grant has not closed the door on the sulking Sakala.
“I don’t have anything against anyone, if he will play and he will know that he made a mistake, follow the criteria that I ask from the players, to take responsibility, not make excuses, no complaints , perform on the pitch and follow the values of the team, anything is possible.”