The Zambia Basketball Federation – ZBF has disclosed that they have lost out about K800,000 in gate taking and other auxiliary revenues due to Covid 19 restrictions.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times – ZBT, ZBF General Secretary Rodrick Ndhlovu reiterated that approximately K800, 000 has been lost in terms of gate takings.
“We could have started the league by end of March and this is July, so we have lost revenue for about four months, which is close to about K800, 000 in gate-taking revenue. Apart from that, we have lost affiliation fees from Associate members”, he said.
Ndhlovu also disclosed that the federation has also come up with a strategic plan to help the players stay fit and train on daily and weekly basis,
“We have put up some sort of mitigating plan to keep the players fit through our Technical Coordinator with his Technical Team and the National team coaches, who put up a plan with the players and gave them training regimes on what should be done on a weekly basis. And they have a monitoring mechanism to see to it that the players are sticking to those plans”, he said.
He also stressed that the Federation will follow the guidelines put by government as it’s for everyone’s benefit. The Federation Internationale de Basketball – FIBA, which is ZBF mother body, has also advised the federation to follow the guideline made by the local Authorities.
“As you may be aware, no one can operate outside government guidelines. With this COVID 19 situation, no one can supersede Country and Local Government guidelines. Meaning at FIBA, our mother body will say if you have start our league, you have to work hand in hand with your country and local government, as they say, we can recover economically and sport wise but we can’t recover lost lives”, he said.
