Saturday, May 10, 2025

Sports Minister Warns CHAN Team

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Don’t waste taxpayers money at the Caf Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in Cote d’Ivoire was sports minister Kenneth Chipungu’s warning he issued to the Zambia national team today.

Chipungu told the team after meeting them at the end of Thursday morning workout that Herve Renard’s squad should justify why government should spend money on the team with performances on the pitch when the CHAN tournament kicks off next Sunday, February 22 in Abidjan.

“You must justify why we are going to spend so much money,” Chipungu said.

“And you know you should not underplay the importance of winning.

“As you prepare to go to Ivory Coast next week, you will need a lot of money and that’s taxpayers money.

“These are the owners of the money and they are watching you, so as you go there you must win.”

Chipungu also warned the team that poor results on the pitch at CHAN will also be met by a no-show from him at Lusaka International Airport when the team arrives back from the tournament.

Government has yet to release the full budget for the team that is expected to leave for Abidjan next Wednesday ahead of the tournament kick off.

Zambia are in Group A together with Senegal, Tanzania and hosts Cote d’Ivoire whom they face in both sides opening game on the 22nd.

Meanwhile, Tanzania were held to a scoreless draw in Dar-es-Salaam by fellow CHAN finalist Zimbabwe in an international friendly played on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe are in Group B together with Ghana, Libya and DR Congo.

FOOTBALL FIXTURES

CAF CONFEDERATIOSN CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND RETURN LEG

13/02/2009

Dar-es-Salaam

Mundu (Zanzibar)- Red Arrows (Zambia)*

*Arrows lead 6-0 from 1st leg.

CAF AFRICA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PRELIMINARY ROUND, RETURN LEG

14/02/2009

Nairobi

Mathare United(Kenya)- Zesco United (Zambia)*

* Zesco lead 2-0 from 1st leg.

26 COMMENTS

  1. Hi #9 Sharp Shooter

    I see no difference. The C stands for “Championship” and can be variably written as “C” or “Ch”. I stand to be corrected.

  2. I would rather we called our national team KK11 as we did before and stick to the copper jersey. Que dicen? what d’u say?

  3. What KK 11, the whole world call us Chipoloplo, its unique. KK was aftera person, what does not make sense. Besides the name has nothing to do with the performance. On the jersey, I agree.

  4. Threats wont take any one anywhere. The boyz need motivation and encouragement. Like any parent to the family, the govt has an obligation to provide for the National Team without holding a gun in the hand.
    The so called copper jersey turns out to be orangish and looks wired. Anything wrong withe white and green?
    The name CHIPOLOPOLO is not the best, after all the bullet is meant to kill and footbo is a social aqctivity. Animal names are better, tho ZAMBIA NATIONAL TEAM is just cool naimwe.

  5. The minister is going to protest if they lose by not going to the airport. This is utter rubbish. If they lose, let them be punished by weeding RB’s farm.

  6. atase!
    Zambia is now ranked 24th in Africa and 92 in the world. we are even behind rwanda, uganda and even the darfur boys.
    kalu and his white gay friend should go! :-t

  7. Good talk by the minister we can’t afford wasting money at this difficult time.These guys should play there lungs out,we should expect to see a good affort from them atleast, even if they dont win the trophy.some applies to the coach I feel this is a test for him to prove that his worth keeping.we dont want to watch the acient kind of zambian football were the player wants to go with the ball into the goal.

  8. why should da minister scare the footballers?how much do you give them for u to scare them?do u know hw much european players get every day?how much money do yo spend on girl friends and hw much money do yo share in parliament corrupted minister?concentrate on making deals and stealing money fo government than talking about football

  9. This is a tough one. I can imagine that there will be eight teams, and each one being given the same message… what will happen? We shall have eight winners? Come on Mr. Minister. Urge the boys to do their best and not to disgrace us by losing by a cricket score. As for winning… Zambia winning… Chipolopolo winning… In your dreams…

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