By Gerald Mambwe
Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) President, Andrew Kamanga has announced that a delegation from FIFA, CAF and COSAFA will return following the cancellation of FAZ elective Annual General Meeting in Livingstone on March 29.
And Kamanga has implored prospective candidates in the FAZ elections not to turn football into a courtroom but should focus on the development of junior national teams and football at large.
Kamanga said a call to service should be about growing the game and providing coherent programs that will enable more national teams to qualify for the FIFA World Cup and win trophies.
“We should be talking about cascading national teams from the under-15 level to the U-13, U-11, and U-9 in the next development cycle,” Kamanga said in his weekly Presidential Corner on Monday.
“We have seen the monumental milestones that having an under-15 national team has brought to our country, resulting in all our under-17 teams qualifying for the World Cup and benefiting from a solid foundation at the junior level.”
He noted that these initiatives would culminate in a strong senior national team in line with the association’s 10-year strategic plan.
Kamanga emphasised that the rise of women’s football did not happen overnight, as the association deliberately realigned the entire structure by investing more in grassroots development and quality coaching.
“The challenge we face now is to sustain these monumental achievements, which have seen the Copper Queens qualify for two Olympics (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), a historic FIFA World Cup appearance in 2023 (Australia & New Zealand),
WAFCON third-place finish (Morocco 2022), and the under-17 women’s team qualifying back-to-back for the FIFA World Cup (Dominican Republic 2024 & Morocco 2025),” he stated.
Kamanga also said that despite limitations in developing the sport, FAZ has consistently refined its strategy and remains confident for further improvements in the future.
LUSAKA STAR
📸FAZ