Zambia President Corner: time to focus on 2029 AFCON bid

Zambia: The Football Association of Zambia launches their weekly Column, and in this week’s Column, they share details of the Weekly football dose. 

Recently, FAZ came off with an exciting FIFA window for the women’s game that saw the Copper Queens engage the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco in two high-level friendly matches. 

The Copper Queens won the first match 2-0 before finishing off their hosts 6-2 in the final match. Results are never the most important thing in friendly matches but an opportunity to prepare for future competitive engagements. Nonetheless, any win against a team as reputable as Morocco should count for something.

The Copper Queens have not dropped the ball after playing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, winning the WAFCON bronze and playing at their first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup. We already have our sights on the Olympic qualifiers next month and the WAFCON qualification journey on the cards.

FAZ said, “We are lucky that the 2023 Cosafa Cup that kicks off on Wednesday presents the Copper Queens, the defending champions, with another opportunity to fine-tune their arsenals. We are happy that the technical bench has opened the door for some untested youngsters to have a run at the Cosafa.”

Other promising young players will have a goal at the Colombia 2024 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier against Congo DR this weekend at Nkoloma Stadium. “We have never been at the FIFA World Cup at U20 level for the women and believe we could have a golden opportunity now. The atmosphere is ripe for success for the women’s game now. We urge the fans to troop to Nkoloma Stadium in numbers on Saturday and push the young girls.”

“On the Chipolopolo side of the business, we are keeping our fingers crossed for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations draw on October 12 in Abidjan. We have lined up some international friendly matches during the FIFA window as Part of preparations for the November round of World Cup qualifiers.”

“We have set a high benchmark in terms of preparing teams for international engagements. Once the draws for the AFCON are done, we will refine our program in terms of preparation for the tournament.”

“Finally, we have just returned from Cairo, where we were among the nations bidding to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations. Initially, we had targeted the 2025 bid, but once we got on the ground and re-evaluated the dynamics, we settled for a joint bid with Botswana.” 

The back-room engagements with Botswana had been going on for a long time between the two governments. It was not a surprise that we ended up merging our bids at the behest of the government. Any AFCON or major tournament bid is anchored on strong government support. 

All the countries that won bids had presentations from the highest offices in their lands. Additionally, the granting of rights for the AFCON is not on the basis of already existing infrastructure but the submission of a concrete plan to the point of hosting the tournament.

FAZ concluded by saying, “Part of our motivation to bid was driven by the assurances from the government that they will fully support our efforts to bring the AFCON to Zambia. Rather than cry about the lost opportunity, we must look to the window that 2029 presents.”

Moreover, East Africa got the rights to host largely because the AFCON had not been hosted in that region since the 1970s, and 2029 will surely be Southern Africa’s turn. We have enough time to prepare for that bid and will have no reason to fail.