The Chipolopolo Zambia job is now officially vacant after the team’s Croatian-born trainer Aljosa Asanovic terminated his contract with the 2012 AFCON champions.
Asanovic confirmed through his legal representative Davor Radic that he has quit Chipolopolo following a pay dispute.
But the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has consistently insisted that they are up to date regarding Asanovic’s salary but that the coach has been AWOL for over a month.
In an interview with Croatian sports portal Sportske, Radic said they were preparing a legal case against FAZ.
The 56-year-old Asanovic has been on the job for eight months following his appointment as Chipolopolo coach in January.
“I must emphasize that coach Aljoša Asanovic is no longer the coach of the Zambian national football team, as of September 22, 2022, because the coach unilaterally terminated the contract due to the violation of contractual obligations by the Football Association of Zambia,” Radic said.
“When I say violations, I mean primarily the failure to fulfil financial obligations towards coach Aljoša Asanovic.
THE COACH AND ZAMBIA SAGA CONTIUES
“The dispute arose because the Football Association of Zambia did not pay coach Aljoša Asanovic his monthly salaries for May, June and July 2022. For this reason, Asanovic addressed them in a letter at the beginning of August 2022, offering them a deadline of 15 days to pay the owed amount.
“However, the FA of Zambia, instead of paying him all the amounts owed, paid him only a small part of the debt, stressing that in the meantime payments for August 2022 were also due.
“I would like to point out that with the latest amendments to the FIFA Rulebook on the Status and Transfers of Players, coaches have been standardized in that rulebook, and their status is now equal to that of players.
“This actually means that FIFA has stipulated in its rules that non-payment of two salaries to the coach by the association or club constitutes a justified reason for the coach to unilaterally terminate the contract.
“In addition, coach Aljoša Asanovic had a clause in his contract with the Football Association of Zambia that he could terminate that contract even due to the non-payment of one salary, which clearly means that the behaviour of the Football Association of Zambia regarding the non-payment of coach Aljoša Asanovic led to the termination of their contractual relationship.”
He was Zambia’s third European coach in five years and enjoyed the shortest reign.
Belgian Sven Vandenbroeck was in office from August 2018 to March 2019.
Asanovic’s predecessor Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevich was in charge from February 2020 to July 2021.
Meanwhile, Asanovic’s Zambian assistant Moses Sichone has been handed temporal reins.
Sichone is currently with Chipolopolo in Mali where they are wrapping up a two-friendly date against their host in Bamako on September 26.
Chipolopolo lost the first match 1-0 on September 23.
