Zambia Women’s Super League side The Elite Ladies have responded to an interview done by key forward Xiomara Mapepa.
Mapepa held an interview with Bolla Zambia in which she highlighted issues pointing to why she did not take part in the Elite Ladies league match against Chipata Girls.
The Elite Ladies have responded to the interview as try to set the record straight, Using their Facebook page.
The Elite Ladies Statement
Anyway she still needs care and guidance from us and not proving wrong. She remains our daughter. So we will only set the record straight on key issues.
Like any Elite Ladies players, Mapepa is available to other clubs who want to buy her. We are a socio-enterprise. And so she has never been blocked to leave our club. Never. Player sales are one way to sustain operations especially when they are at a premium. In fact we even took her for trials in Sweden where she was not successful and we are currently discussing possible deals for her.
The player was told last month that she can leave any time we have an acceptable offer. Unfortunately most approaches she gets are illegal tappings especially from local clubs that have no transfer fee offers to the club but speak to her directly.
Any clubs that wants her, either local or abroad, can make the offer to us and we shall evaluate. However, she is not available for free nor for cheap. We are talking offers above USD 10,000 here.
Secondly, the club is up to date with remunerations based on her current contract, which is valid until May 2024 with an option for the club to extend by one year up to May 2025. This is not even in doubt as payments are done electronically and records are available.
Further, we have also always supported her for national team assignments and we believe she will work hard in training and in the next games so she can get back to the National team.
One of our goals is to develop great national team players at Under 17, Under 20 and senior national teams. We will be the last to block her to done the green, red, black and orange and the kopa.
Her application in training and games will unlock that door.
Mapepa’s discipline and dedication are good. And we believe she will do just fine. We still believe in her like we did when many didn’t.
Additionally, we wish to say she will not be punished on what she said even though a lot did not reflect reality. And there will be no further comment on the matter from the club as we believe that we have moved on on the topic and want the player to concentrate on training and games having missed last week’s training and league match.
Lastly, we also appreciate all your comments, both positive and negative as they grow us as a brand. Don’t get annoyed when we refuse to listen to you. We respect your opinions. Respect ours too.
