Football association regrets Zambia Under-17 football team exit from AFCON tournament

Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) President, Andrew Kamanga, has described the Under-17’s exit at the on-going under-17 African Cup of Nations being played in Algeria as painful.

Kamanga in a statement issued on Monday in Lusaka said it is particularly painful for the under-17 as they showed some strong mentality to overcome table toppers Morocco.

He said the under-17’s best chance in qualifying lay in having done better in the first two fixtures. However, for developmental teams, winning is not the only focus as they must be given a more rounded developmental trajectory.

“There is enough positivity in the team that the Association can work with going forward.
There are a few more international opportunities for junior teams which will be rolled out as the year progresses,” Kamanga said.

He said FAZ still has the junior teams participate in high level youth tournaments like the Croatia invitational and the Georgia UEFA Youth tournament.

“Part of the progress seen in some of the players in that project are as a result of exposure they got in those youth tournaments at under-15 level,” Kamanga said.

He further said FAZ is also not relenting in upskilling coaches for the various national teams and in leveraging with the Memorandum of Understanding with Moroccan, the association is sending under-17 Coach Ian Bakala to Morocco for a CAF A licence course that commences this week.

“Coach Bakala will be on that program with Green Buffaloes trainer Masautso Tembo who is already in that country. This is on top of the other two slots for the CAF Pro License where we will send Wedson Nyirenda and Copper Queens gaffer Bruce Mwape,” Kamanga said.

He said that there was no substitute for knowledge in coaching especially with fast changing dynamics propelled by technology.

Kamanga said to widen the beneficiary pool, FAZ remained on course to set up the coaching school through our Memorandum of Understanding with the Croatia Football Federation.

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