The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has urged the Under-17 Men’s National Team to remain focused following their quarterfinal exit at the on-going Africa Cup of Nations.
FAZ president Andrew Kamanga saidthat despite the elimination at the quarterfinal stage, the team had broken new milestones like the historic FIFA World Cup qualification.“First congratulations to the team on the overall milestone of world cup qualification and reaching the quarterfinals for the first time for this age group.
We obviously could have done more but we have to pick ourselves up from this point,” he said
“The team has some time between now and the world cup in November to re-organize and ensure that we seal all the loopholes. The technical bench will expectedly provide a report which will guide on the next steps.”
Kamanga said FAZ will not lose sight of the need to expose the young players to more competitive football.
“While we are capturing these boys and girls at under-15 level, we are more compelled to accelerate our talent identification program that seeks to set up an under-13 and 11 national team. We need to strengthen our grassroots structure more going forward,” he said.
Kamanga says the association will now focus on preparing the team adequately for the FIFA World Cup.
The junior Chipolopolo were on Thursday evening eliminated from the AFCON after losing 6-1 to Burkina Faso in the quarterfinals.
Zambia however qualified for its debut FIFA under-17 Men’s World Cup,which will be held in November in Morocco.
For and on behalf of:
FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF ZAMBIA
Sydney Mungala
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
West African teams often engage in age cheating, and I hope this was not the case in the 6-1 quarter final drubbing!
No uwawa tabula kabepesho. We just lost embarrassingly yet we are going to the World Cup
Wake up! Or you will lose all games by cricket scores.