The Zambia national teams’ two away international friendly matches against DR Congo and Zimbabwe that were scheduled for next week have been cancelled.
Zambia were due play Zimbabwe in Harare on March 11Â before heading to play DR Congo on the 17th in Lubumbashi.
The cancellation was made today by FAZ after coach Patrick Phiri failed to meet a quorum of players to successfully hold a training camp this week.
This has led to training camp to be prematurely called off today, Wednesday just 24 hours after it commenced.
Only six players turned up for Zambia’s opening day of training camp in Lusaka on Tuesday ahead of the teams March 23, Africa Cup away qualifier to Congo-Brazzaville.
Zambia will now regroup on Monday, March 12 again in Lusaka.
The situation has been exacerbated by defending league champions and CAF Africa Champions Leagues representative Zanaco FC’s decision not to release its’ players for week 1 of Zambia’s training camp.
Zanaco are scheduled to host Tunisia club Esperance in Lusaka on March 17 in a 2nd leg, 2nd round tie in the CAF Champions League in which the they trial 2-0 to the away side.
How can a national friendly be cancelled like that? I have never heard of Brazil cancelling a pre-announced game, friendly or not. This just shows how frivolous football management is in Zambia. Does FAZ want to qualify for these Afcon finals? They should come out in the open and just pull out of the competition because realistically speaking there is no chance of them beating South Africa in South Africa and beating congo in congo and thus winning the group. They should concetrate on grooming the U-17 and 23 teams to qualify for 2010 world Cup. However, they are equally neglecting and mismanaging these junior teams thus giving us no hope that we will play in the 2010 finals. Lwandamina wont have a chance at the finals. How do u expect a team going for World finals to go there without preparatory games? Everybody (the government too) puts in so little and yet expects the best results! Investment in football teams is not a last minute affair where you give a team money at the last minut