Match Report:

Man of the Match: Webster the taxi driver
Lemon of the Match: The Kabwe Keeper for regularly lying down on the pitch

What to do with a free Saturday in Zambia, at the start of the World Cup? Go and watch a Zambian Premier League football match of course! Lana, Graham and I jumped in a taxi to Kabwe with the plan of watching Kabwe Warriors play Nchanga Rangers. During the journey it turned out that, by chance, our driver was the famous Webster. He is well known locally as being a nice, friendly, reasonably priced and most importantly a safe driver – a rare combination here!

We couldn’t let a trip to Kabwe go by without going to one of the best cafes in Zambia for some lunch. Pizza, burgers, ginormous pieces of chocolate cake – we had it all, while sat in beautiful gardens under a banana tree. Webster dropped us off, saying that he was planning a quiet day fixing the broken back wheel of his car (OK even the safe drivers here are questionable!), and offering to be our private driver for the day for the princely sum of 70 kwacha (£7) each. Great deal!

After lunch, Webster took us to a few places in town. He would jump out and try to negotiate a deal for us, even trying to convince one shop to re-open for the muzungus – mortifying!! Then we headed to the football ground. At this point he became even more animated, chatting to several officials and trying to get the best deal possible. We had already been told by the football coach at the school (an ex-Warriors player) to expect to pay 20 kwacha per ticket. This news didn’t phase Webster though – he was adamant that he could improve on that! We should never have doubted him. His excellent negotiation skills, and the fact that three muzungus are quite an attraction here, meant that the four of us got in for a total price of 35 kwacha. Yep thats right, we watched a premiership football match for less than £1 each. Man Utd take note. We were ushured past the queue and through the turnstiles by a lady with a large gun.

I think our tickets only allowed us in to the cheap side of the stadium, but of course Webster managed to charm the gate attendant and we were let through to the ‘expensive seats. The staduim was quite basic, with concrete stepped terraces and just one covered stand. The crowd was amazing, with drums, singing and vuvuzelas before the match even started. At half time people squashed along the rows, selling a variety of goods. They had juice, biscuits, popcorn and one enterprising man was even selling World Cup match schedules for 1 kwacha. These sold like hotcakes as it is almost impossible to get a TV schedule here. There is only one analogue channel (ZNBC) but they have committed to showing all 64 matches, bumping the terrible Nigerian soaps off the schedule. I think our evenings are sorted for the next month.

Webster informed us about the league positions of the teams (Nchanga near the top, Kabwe near the bottom) and pointed out the player who is on the national side. The match was entertaining, but I think it will be a while before Zambia are ready to compete with the Brazillians. Every time a player was injured, the ref would sprint across the pitch to personally check he was ok. Towards the end one of the Kabwe players (who were in the lead) got stretchered off the pitch with a ‘terrible’ injury. He made a miraculous recovery on the side line, but the ref ignored his pleas to get back on the pitch for about 5 minutes – serves him right for time wasting.

At the end of the match, the crowd climb over the fence to go and meet the footballers. Another thing I cant imagine ever happening in the Premiership!

One weekend, one premier league match, 5 world cup matches – a lot of football.