Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has said the early exit of the country's national soccer team at the ongoing African Cup of Nations in Egypt was due to the low standards of the country's premier league.

The president said it was unfair to call for the resignation of the team's technical director Kalusha Bwalya or to blame the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) and the government.

"Demands for the firing or resignation of Kalusha Bwalya are not fair and we should allow this soccer legend of our nation to continue building the team for our future," Mwanawasa said when he officiated an international workshop on physical education and sports in Lusaka Wednesday.

The president's remarks came in the wake of growing calls for the firing of Bwalya whom soccer fans had accused of leading to the poor performance in Egypt that saw Zambia lose 4-1 to Tunisia and 2-1 to Guinea before beating South Africa 1-0.

The president said the country should take a broad perspective on the entire subject of development of football, adding that the Zambian league was still young and the players only trained on part time basis in poor training facilities.

It was unrealistic to expect that the national team could perform well once the league was poor, Mwanawasa said.

"It must be understood that because of the poor quality of our national league, Zambia has failed to get professional contracts for its players in high performing leagues abroad," he added.

He said the country should be prepared to improve the local league through investment in soccer at the league level.

The president, however, said that the nation must look at a strategy for improving the performance in football and also for developing other sports as a way to build a healthy nation.