Zambia: Zambia women’s national team attacker Siomala Mapepa has come out to defend herself against recent claims by her club, Elite Ladies, that she exhibits low levels of discipline.
On Sunday, the Lusaka-based FAZ Women’s Super League side released a contentious statement claiming the 21-year old winger had been absent from training for a whole week and only showed up on Friday, a day prior to the team’s league fixture away to Chipata Girls in Eastern Province.
Elite further claimed that Mapepa had asked to be excused from the trip to Chipata and gave no reason for having missed training the whole week.
However, Mapepa has refuted the claims by the club and insists that she had not missed training for a day, evidenced by her having been named in the team’s 18-member squad that entered camp ahead of the trip to Chipata.
Speaking in a phone call interview, Mapepa told the media that she had excused herself from the trip to Chipata as she was not comfortable with the club’s travel arrangements.
Mapepa claimed that the team had to be made to travel to Chipata at midnight on the actual day of the fixture, something that was rather too risky for her.
“They are saying I am indiscipline, but the issue was, I trained fully the whole week, I even trained in the afternoon before we entered camp, “When we entered the camp, we were told the bus would come for us to travel to Chipata around 09:00 hours, but it never arrived, then we were told it would come an hour later, claiming that the bus that was to come take us had been coming from Kitwe” Mapepa explained.
“We waited until it was midnight, that is when the bus arrived to take us to Chipata, and yes, I did refuse to travel with the team, and it was because of the time they wanted us to travel; it was risky to travel around that time.”
“If I was indiscipline as they claim, then why was I in the 18-member squad that was in camp? My only crime is to have refused to take the risk of travelling at an odd hour.”
Mapepa also denied claims that she had not informed the club of her decision to remain behind in Lusaka on Friday.
“I didn’t just refuse for no reason, and I even sent Oliver [Shalala] a text message to say I decided not to travel because the time was too awkward and I wasn’t at peace with travelling at such an hour,
“In the morning, I found a reply text from him, and he was saying that even if I didn’t travel, the team would still perform well. I also replied to him and said I didn’t say or wish that the team would lose, and then later, I only saw them posting that I was indisciplined and refused to travel.”
Meanwhile, Mapepa also complained about the financial state of the club and claimed she had not received her salary for the past two years.
“I signed my contract with Elite [Ladies] back in 2020, and it was Lusaka Dynamos at that time; I have only gotten my salary twice; even as we speak now, we don’t get paid at Elite, “I would also love to ask that if as a player you are at a club where you don’t get paid and you just ask from club leaders for money to sort out bills or even just a K500 or K1000, can that money be considered to be the salary?” she asked.
“I don’t know if they consider that to be part of the salary, but I think what should be done is that they should pay according to what is written in the contract.”
Mapepa emerged top scorer in the 2021/22 season with Elite before going on to star for the Copper Queens at the 2022 WAFCON tournament in Morocco.
Her performances saw her attract interest from clubs, including abroad, but Mapepa claims the club has continuously shown little desire to process her transfer even after expressing interest in leaving the club.
Mapepa also claimed that the club had threatened to ensure she would not receive any call-ups to the national team if she insisted on leaving Elite.
“I have had a number of offers from different teams outside the country, but Elite have blocked all the moves,” she said.
