Friday, March 29, 2024

President Lungu appeals to CAF to consider Zambia for the Senior AFCON tournerment

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President Edgar Lungu meeting with CAF President Issa Hayatou at State house in Lusaka on Monday 13-03-2017-Picture By Eddie Mwanaleza

President Edgar Lungu has appealed to Confederation of African Football (CAF) to consider Zambia to host the senior African Cup of Nation.

Speaking when he held a meeting with CAF president Issa Hayatou this morning at State House, President Lungu says the country will prepare adequately once given the opportunity.

President Lungu has assured Mr. Hayatou that the sports infrastructure will be improved because they will have enough time to prepare.
And the Head of State has expressed disappointment with the behavior of Senegal under 20 team for using black magic called juju during the tournament.

He says such practices brings shame to the game of football.

President Lungu says youths should be discouraged from practicing witchcraft saying football is all about friendship hence the need to encourage the youths to avoid such practices.

He has since appealed to CAF to seriously look into the matter because such practices are only hindering the growth of African football.

Meanwhile Mr. Hayatou says CAF will consider Zambia to host 2025 AFCON.

He has promised president Lungu that if the country that is hosting the forthcoming AFCON fails Zambia will given the opportunity to host.

Youth and Sports Minister Moses has disclosed Zambia under 20 has been invited to play pre-tournament game against South Korea.

And Mr. Mawere says Zambia is ready to host the senior African Cup of Nation if given a chance.

President Edgar Lungu Welcomes CAF President Issa Hayatou at State house in Lusaka on Monday 13-03-2017- Picture By Eddie Mwanaleza/State house.
Youth and Sports Minister chats with President Edgar Lungu (c) CAF President Issa Hayatou (r) at State House
Youth and Sports Minister chats with President Edgar Lungu (c) CAF President Issa Hayatou (r) at State House
President Edgar Lungu speaks to CAF President Issa Hayatou at State House when he called on the President Lungu
President Edgar Lungu speaks to CAF President Issa Hayatou at State House when he called on the President Lungu
President Edgar Lungu speaks to CAF President Issa Hayatou at State House when he called on the President Lungu
President Edgar Lungu speaks to CAF President Issa Hayatou at State House when he called on the President Lungu
President Edgar Lungu meeting with CAF President Issa Hayatou at State house in Lusaka on Monday 13-03-2017-Picture By Eddie Mwanaleza
President Edgar Lungu meeting with CAF President Issa Hayatou at State house in Lusaka on Monday 13-03-2017-Picture By Eddie Mwanaleza
President Edgar Lungu pose with football family with CAF President Issa Hayatou at State house in Lusaka on Monday 13-03-2017-Picture By Eddie Mwanaleza

68 COMMENTS

    • I am coming to build a soccer Academy not begging CAF for a tournament. We need to develop talent first.

    • Kaizer Zulu Stirs Diplomatic Scandal At Heroes; Fights CAF Official; Assaults Security Personnel

      Trouble seems to follow Special Advisor to the President for Politics, Kaizer Zulu as he picked up a fight with Confederation of African Football (CAF) officials for insisting to be on the podium with the Head of State during the medal presentation.

      And a steward named Juckline Nkukulusa has opened a docket at Matero Police alleging he had been assaulted by Kaizer Zulu.

      Kaizer, who is used to be treated like royalty from favour seekers, hit a brick wall when CAF officials asked him to stay clear of the podium.

      A shocked Zulu blew the top hurling unpalatable words at the CAF officials who responded with equal measure and drewattention among the Presidential entourage.

      Kaizer…

    • HOSTING SENIOR CAF TOURNAMENT IS NOT JOKE MR LUNGU. Here’s why;

      1. The U-20 tournament had only 8 teams hosted in 2 cities, yet the senior one involves 16 that should be hosted in 4 cities, each with a group consisting of 4 teams. Each team has a contingent of at least 100 people if you include 30 team members, FA & govt officials plus journalists ( not included supporters) – and these must be accommodated in at least 4 star hotels. Ordinarily, these would take up a whole 2 floors of a hotel like Lusaka’s Intercontinental.
      2. Apart from the match stadium, each host city should have sufficient training facilities for each of the 4 teams.
      3. There’s also a stipulated number of designated health facilities required.
      4. Transport arrangements should be in place to enable safe and…

    • Although it is said you can’t tell by looking, can this dull looking Hayatou be intelligent in any way? I understand he ascended to the helm of African football when football was for school dropouts. Then, he was the sharpest of all dropouts in football. This man must surely leave the stage now that we have sharp guys in the world of football.

    • Thats sinking low, a President commenting on witchcraft? What about Zambians kneeling praying for supernatural powers. Evn your Gabon disaster victims, you pray on their graves. God can favor your players, but Senegalese are forbidden to ask their ancestors for help.

    • CONTINUED…
      4. Transport arrangements should be in place to enable safe and timely passage of teams and officials to match venues, and the list of other requirements goes on….now the quest is WHICH FOUR CITIES MEET THIS CRITERIA IN ZAMBIA? Only 2 match venues at present!!!!
      5. Now, if you want to know how far we are from hosting AFCON, think of the year;
      a) Livingstone will have an approved type and size of stadium and training venues – at least here’s no accommodation problem there, besides it the only place where visitors can have much else to do other that soccer. b) Kitwe will have an approved stadium and 2 more serious hotels. C). Ndola will have 2 more serious hotels
      SEEMS LIKE THE YEAR 2040 to me….. OR AM I WRONG?

    • No kidding, King Kaizer did that again???? Assault AGAIN???? No arrests?
      This time Kaizer anyela ku mwela.

    • @Nostradamus
      Imagine! How did lungu know that was witchcraft, maybe the Senegal boy just threw a luck charm on the pitch nothing to do with witchcraft

    • Webo housefly stop Bembanising my language. Iam a Biza and so is Kambwili. In Biza Kambwili is not leopard. It is a hoe

    • Webo ka @Nkalanda uli ka Bafuni webo bati (Bafoon) abanobe bakolanda ifintu ifyakutungilila ikyalo kyesu kena kalelandafye amapwetete kabili nganali kwikwete kuti nakulampa nebo nefitutu fyena tefyakupenda! yaku aka kamwana umusalula kwati kimbusu kyabalosi abaku seneko! Selapo apa nsilefwaya ukukumona nakabili nakusopesya ala nkakupolaula tawangisiba nebo.

    • Elo naiwe ka Musyota ala umwanakasi afwala amatolosi tawama nokukyensakyensa pabaume ala ikyupo tawakakimone, wilatemwa nokulalandalanda mumalyasi yabaume ala mwanakasi afwile aikyefwa ekifyalilwa kisuma uusyumfwa patunono napatwingi twine teti omfwe.

    • Pamo napo kyakine uyu mulebesi wamupila apalana na kitwe mambo wesu uwatusya Kilufya Sata Mulenga awe kwena walanda ikituntulu iwe ka Musyota…. Yaku Yaku Bane kwati ni Kilufya nokutinya utwinso, imilomo ne misisi nayo bapalana limbi mwana waba ngina mukalamba nangufye bawisi mwaikye awe kwena iki kyena kitensya kyalo.

    • Good siggestion Lungu. Lets find cost effective but efficient ways of putting up stadium infrastructure in Livingstone and Chipata. We can make use of prison labour, and a mix of expetriate and local proffesiionals; cut a deal with Dangote for cheap cement and Universal mining for steel

  1. I am coming to build a soccer Academy not begging CAF for a tournament. We need to develop talent first.

    • Just stop that, you started dreaming 3 days ago.
      Not academy, but scholarships. At my school in Luapula, us who played in Buffalo Cup or Kapapula cup were exempted from boarding fees or something like that. As long as we attended practice. Mufulira Wonderers got so many prayers and paid them to for holiday ku Mufulira. You don’t need another building for soccer.
      But once one is selected to college or university that was end of our football career. I don’t any Zambian player with a degree.

  2. Is that not ok if President is asking to host afcon?come on guys don’t hate President when he is doing that.all u think is politics.remember in under 20 they is no Tonga only Easterners and mbuyaz Bembas.if u look at Zambia Presidents are coming from eastern and mbuyaz.Tonga can’t rule Zambia

    • Foolish statement. Take into account our motto.. One Zambia One nation. In this situation, The minister of sports should be the one appealing not the president.

  3. We need at least two more stadia Mr President and an improvement of other important amenities. How much is State House promising the boys?The last time I checked,Houses promised to the Senior team for winning 2012 Afcon have not been given or built

    • Why should GRZ give them money…this why you dont move forward. This is how the Galus used to reward themselves allowances from the winnings instead of investing it.

  4. This was a good test for hosting football events in Zambia, however please improve on public transport linking these stadiums so that matches can be distributed evenly between the stadiums. We need Morden railway to link these stadiums so that fans can easily travel to matches an return to their destination on the same day. We also need to test out playing under floodlights, so power failures will not be acceptable.

  5. IT’S GOOD IDEA TO HOLD THE SENIOR CAF TOURNAMENT. BUT, ZAMBIA HAS A LONG WAY TO GO IN THE CONTEXT OF INFRASTRUCTURENOT ONLY IN SPORT BUT DESCENT COMMUTER TRANSPORT (NOT MBABULA SHAMA BUSES), ENOUGH, AFFORDABLE AND DESCENT HOTEL ROOM ACCOMMODATION, ETC. WE NEED TO RE-THINK, ESPECIALLY, OUR COMMUTTER TRANSPORT WHICH DOES NOT ALLOW FOR WHEELCHAIR COMMUTTERS AND PARENTS WITH PUSH CHAIRS, ETC. HOTEL ROOM MUST BE DESCENT, AFFORDABLE AND ENOUGH. THE LOW ENFORCRMENT MUST BE RETRAINED FOR TERRORISM AND LARGE GROUP HANDLING. WE ALSO NEED MORE AND BETTER STADIA. AS AT NOW, BULANDA BUSHALA, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ABOVE.

    • Well said. Let’s enjoy the under-20’s great victory but remain realistic about our ability to host a tournament like the senior Afcon tournament.

    • #Peter. Have you been to any AFCON tournament? I guess NO. Just keep quit instead of discouraging us. You sound very THEORETICAL……and l sure you are trying to compare our infrustracture with some develeped country. WE CAN HOST THE SENIOR AFCON SUCCESSFULLY! Just continue working and dreaming. Why cant you be proud of our Zambia for once.

    • @peter…. we ve enough transport in zambia, those wrecks FLASH buses can do the job, but CAF wont accept buses fit for carrying cockcroches as transport.

  6. Lazy Lungu has found an excuse to drink for the whole day today…how can you host AFCON senior finals when you only have two stadia and your ZP officers are trigger happy with shooting off teargas canisters.
    What ever happened to the stadia construction in Mongu and Livingstone? A case of overpromising when you have no money.
    Get your priorities right with basics like good transport networks, health care, better trained officers, water, sanitation before you can make such requests!

  7. ECL is over promising, everywhere he talks improvements, in this area, in that area….tupeniko focus bane.
    Otherwise, it’s all talk, no delivery.

  8. Where is great KALU? Iam missing the legend footballer, coach and administrator, thumbs up to Kalusha bwalya for tapping talent from deep flung areas like from where the wise come from. Andrew Kamanga is a chancer, for now we are watching you bwana , need to be ready to be impeached. Who is that khoi khoi looking man in the last picture? Hayatou cannot make a decision alone for Zambia to host the senior Afcon, so the talk was just rhetoric.

  9. Be grateful you cretins. A lot of real soccer lovers have died without seeing such glory coming forth. Today since pf came in power we have archieved what was almost impossible and all you say is insults. Give credits were it’s due otherwise you will become irrelevant to the equation. By opposing everything even what everybody is seeing as good has cost OVAL HEAD of presidency. Be real

    • PF goverment will go into history as the only party to have won both the senior and junior AFCON trophys during their tenure of office a thing that MMD and UNIP failed to achieve.Love them or hate them PF has done it.

  10. Instead of asking to host the Senior Tournament Illegitimate Lungu should be busy finding ways to legitimatise his Rule and disciplining his unruly Political Adviser, Kaiser Zulu. At long last the Petition Hearing is coming up and Lungu should be worried after illegally clinging on to power after a disputed Election on 11th August 2016. Had Lungu won these Elections he would have quickly accepted the Petition Hearing and by now he would have provided the Court with all the Evidence that he won outright. The fact that for the last 6 months Lungu failed to do so means he knows that Petitioners have overwhelming evidence to show that HH won the Election outright and Lungu stole HH’s Victory. That is why Lungu has been blocking the Petition Hearing all along. The Petition is a game changer…

  11. Even in soccer, until someone dies at the helm, that’s African democracy. We should just accept that democracy is alien to us. What we know is Chiefs/Kings at the helm and that’s all. Look at Issa Hayatou, he looks older that RGM in Zim and he will now go for a 10th term I am sure.

  12. Although it is said you can’t tell by looking, can this dull looking Hayatou be intelligent in any way? I understand he ascended to the helm of African football when football was for school dropouts. Then, he was the sharpest of all dropouts in football. This man must surely leave the stage now that we have sharp guys in the world of football.

  13. As suspected Lungu has no clue about football. He just wants political mileage out of it.

    Doesnt he know that to host AFCON you need to have 4 first-class stadia in 4 diferent cities with 5-star hotels? As it is now Zambia can only co-host with Zambabwe, or Malawi who also have two stadia each.

    Let his PF Government build two more stadia like what the MMD did. Let him build in Livingstone and Mongu or Chipata.

    • Mmmm, this green could be PF’s idea…but true, let the national copper jersey come back..PF wants to politicize everything..damn them!!

  14. The condition of that pitch leaves much to be desired. I never saw any sliding tackle the entire tournament.

    The turf was so rough like the Kapinga in my backyard as if the organizers didnt know for 2 years that would be hosting. Shameful FAZ.

    Asides, i think the country has bigger urgent problems that need LAZY’s immediate attention, e.g.

    – YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT,
    – HIGH FOOD PRICES
    – ENERGY PRICES
    – HUNGER Etc.

  15. With or without the 2025 Afcon, strategically put up a stadium right in the tourist capital, Livingstone. Imagine, how many people would see our tourism if the final was played in Livingstone and how many people would go spread the news about Zambias tourism

  16. But ba Lungu bena awe mwe! CAF doesnt just consider you from nowhere. You must first apply then start making such pleas. In any case you are appealing to the wrong man because Hayatou is on his way out

  17. You are wrong; its an opportunity to develop. There are many Zambians with money who can invest in such ventures. What is wrong with us kanshi? We are so negative and or pessimistic about business opportunities. Tournaments equal cash flow into a country. The more you host the better your local economies get!!

    • Be Rigoesanchez
      Ati there are many Zambians with money.This corruption you PF id10ts have engaed in has made you loose all senses.Do you even the actual picture honest business men are going thru?Just enjoy your tu ma corruption proceeds whilst they last.

  18. Sure an educated President worried & speaking about silly superstitions like Juju??
    If Juju was real, India, Arabia, Haiti, & Most of Africa would always win the World Cup.
    I would’nt waste my breath worrying about Juju.
    Its just Psycological warfare, & Zaire in the past were Kings of this Psychological warfare, as they would arrive in Zambia, Sangoma in tow, throw shells, beads & old coins on the pitch. & smear “potions” over goal posts, & K.K 11, & other African teams would freeze & qualifying games.
    We all know what happened to Zaire when they progressed to the World Cup. 9 -0 DRUBBING
    WHERE WAS THE JUJU TO HELP??
    STOP WORRYING ABOUT SILLY SUPERSTITIONS IN THE 21st CENTUARY.
    Did Juju save Senegal yesterday??

  19. kiki tear gassing players with your trigger happy police and this rat thinks anyone would have confidence in this country. It will only happen when HH makes the much needed improvements politcally, economically and socially. Till then continue begging

  20. @NEZ,which HH are talking about?Kainde is now history in Zambia.he died on 11/08/2016 politically.in 2021 the loss for UPND and HH will be huge!!!Let ECL(people’s darling) develop mother Zambia in peace!!!under PF its Favour after Favour as just within 5 yrs of PF’s rule Chipolopolo boys have won cups twice(2012 and 2017),so even Africa Cup of Nations will surely come to Zambia under PF!Take note:No more load shedding,Kwacha is stable,we have water 24/7 in our homes,U20 won the cup, etc.things are getting better and better under PF! AS A RESULT,HH IS BEING PUSHED MILES AWAY FROM STATE HOUSE DAILY!!

  21. This Cameroonian is the king of corruption aka Issa Hire Two -one bribe to Hayatou and the other to some country official.

  22. Not when you have a thug in the name of Kaizer. First fire the thug and then ask CAF for Zambia to be considered.

  23. Negatives all the way instead offering suggestions of how this can be successfully achieved. Afterall it’s not Lungu but Zambia that will benefit. Lungu may not even be around.

  24. Most of UPND bloggers comments are pathetic, to them every thing is negativity, and this Idy.t NEZ is disgustiing with his language.Give credit where it is due PF has won you two continental trophies in in 5 years and all you can do is insult the president!

    • Its not Pf that won naimwe! what kind of shallow mindedness is that.Carefull or this blind caderism will make you sound dull each day.

  25. I don’t like Haytou, but making bad comments is the lowest one can sink. You cannot change the way God created you just as a pot has no say on how the potter decides to shape it. And don’t forget you cannot judge a book by its cover.

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