Siomala Mapepa: Battling Unfair Claims and Financial Struggles at Elite Ladies FC

19.12.2023 | Football in my DNA

𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐀𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐌𝐲 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐀𝐙 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐬” — 𝐌𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐚 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐔𝐩 𝐎𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐲 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞

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 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 evident by her having being 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 Bolla Zambia that she had excused herself from the trip to Chipata as she was not comfortable with club’s traveling 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 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 will 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 refuse to take the risk of traveling at an odd hour.”

Mapepa also denied claims that she had not informed the club of her decision to remained behind in Lusaka on Friday.

“I didn’t just refuse for no reason and I even sent Mr Oliver [Shalala] a text message to say I decided to not to travel because the time was too awkward and I wasn’t at peace with traveling at such an hour,

“In the morning, I found a reply text him and he was saying that even if I didn’t travel the team would still perform well and 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 indiscipline and refused to travel.”

Meanwhile, Mapepa also complained about the financial state at the club and claimed she had not received her salary for the past two years.

“I signed my contract Elite [Ladies] back in 2020 and it was Lusaka Dynamos 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 paid and you just ask from club leaders for money to sort out bills of even just a K500 or K1000, can that money be considered to be 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 continously shown little interest to process her transfer even after expressing interest to leave the club.

Mapepa also claimed that the club had threatened to ensure she does not receive any call-ups to the national team if she had 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.

Credit: Wami Katanga