Zambia’s friendly against Namibia has been called off.
The friendly, that has been plagued with questions over which coach will be in charge due to a club fixture congestion, was scheduled to be played this Sunday at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
“The match has been cancelled at the request of the Government of the Republic of Namibia due to the 2016 Cosafa Castle Cup competition that will be hosted by Namibia,” The Football Association of Zambia stated.
Namibia will host the 2016 Cosafa Cup from June 11-25.
The friendly also fell on the same date as the big Copperbelt derby at Nkana Stadium in Kitwe between hosts and FAZ Super Division leaders Nkana and defending champions Zesco United.
Nkana withdrew Zambia assistant coach Aggrey Chiyangi who is the clubs’ head trainer from the Namibia game due to the critical derby fixture.
Zesco too recalled George Lwandamina, who is Zambia head coach, to take care of the crucial match against Nkana who have never beaten them in the league since the Ndola club was promoted in 2004.
The friendly was also set to test fans appetite for international football after a forgettable week for Zambia.
This follows Zambia’s 3-2 away loss to Guinea Bissau on June 4 that saw Chipolopolo eliminated from the 2017 Africa Cup qualifiers and handed their lowly ranked hosts a debut appearance at the tournament.
Meanwhile, the club versus country conundrum is set to continue after Sunday’s derby.
Zesco are insisting that Lwandamina will not travel to Namibia for the Cosafa Cup with Zambia next week because they have a 2016 CAF Champions League Group A opener against 8-time champions Al Ahly of Egypt on June 18 in Ndola.
Zambia are also set to kickoff their Cosafa Cup campaign that same date when they enter the competition at the quarterfinal stage where they await winner from Group involving The Seychelles, Madagascar, Swaziland and fellow record four-time champions Zimbabwe.
Chipolopolo have been handed a preliminary round group stage round bye from the tournament.
The New FAZ
This new FAZ, is like the new PF.
No vision, useless leadership, both Presidents were elected in dubious means. Just shut both.
And our football goes dead! dead! dead! I doubt whther we shall ever qualify for any AFCON finals from now onwards!
I am available if Faz cannot find any coach to take the team for cosafa. I am better than Lwandamina and not very desperate for money. The first 3 months ,I won’t charge and. There you will pay $2500 per month
Now FAZ resorts to the boardroom:
Guinea Bissau FA Vice President Johnny Mendes held a press conference earlier today were he ironed out the issue concerning the protest the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) had lodged with CAF to do with goalkeeper Papa Masse Mbaye Fall’s eligibility.
In his statement Mendes started by saying the Zambians allege that our goalkeeper received his passport [Guinea-Bissau ] on the day of the game which is simply not the case.
We received the protest on the same day of the game from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Which, in turn, gave us 48 hours to submit supporting documents of the nationality of the player.
“You can stay calm, we have all the documents proving that the player has Guinean nationality and everything is legally binding,…