 Later that year, Chitalu received an honorary diploma for Fair Play from the International Fair Play Committee at the awards ceremony on 3 November 1988 in Paris, after he came out second to Indian tennis star Vijay Amritraj in a poll to honour some of the world's most outstanding sports personalities.In 1990, disaster struck when Warriors were relegated and coach Jack Chanda was fired.The club called on Chitalu to lead them back to the top league and he obliged by first ensuring that none of the club's top players left to join other clubs.