Daily Nation Newspaper

Zambia U-17 down hapless Comoros

...as COSAFA suspend four teams for age cheating Micho’s 26-Bullets

- By SPORTS REPORTER

ZAMBIA began the 2020 COSAFA Men's Under-17 Championsh­ip campaign with a 2-0 win over Comoros Islands.

First and second half goals from Charles Majapa and Joseph Sabobo Banda handed the Young Copper Bullets the three points at Gelvandale Stadium in South Africa. Meanwhile, the team’s mission to defend the COSAFA Men's Under-17 championsh­ip will continue after COSAFA confirmed that all the 20 players have passed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests.

The tests, which were conducted by the Confederat­ion of African Football (CAF), were aimed at checking the eligibilit­y of players for the junior Salzburg championsh­ip. star man Enock Mwepu enjoying UEFA FAZ champions Technical league DirecAustr­ian tor giants. Lyson Zulu, who mate at Salzburg Patson Daka he is still nursing a hamstring when Red Bull Salzburg played Atletico Madrid in one of the fixtures.

Tanzanian duo of Cletus Chama who were dropped during last for allegedly missing two flights out while the former Orlando Shonga and Augustin made it back into the Chipolopol­o is leading the delegation in Port Elizabeth told the FAZ Media team that with the latest developmen­t, all Group A and B matches have been quashed with a new fixture schedule released for round-robin matches.

Zulu said according to article 8 of the 2020 COSAFA Men's Under-17 Championsh­ip rules and regulation­s, teams that fail the tests are sanctioned based on the findings.

"I think that this goes to all the work that has been done by the different coaches that we have used to select these players from the different leagues that we run in the country," Zulu said.

Article 8 states that "In the event that a participat­ing team has one or more players

who do not pass the MRI test for eligibilit­y, then the applicable team will be disqualifi­ed and will have to return home as soon as is practicall­y possible."

Apart from Zambia, the other teams that will remain in the tournament are hosts South Africa, Angola and Malawi while the disqualifi­ed teams are Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini and Zimbabwe.

The new fixtures will see George Chilufya's side take on Angola tomorrow before playing Malawi two days later. Zambia will wrap-up their round-robin fixture against the hosts on November 26.

The two teams after the revised fixture schedule will qualify to the championsh­ip finals as well as the 2021 Morocco Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations while the third and fourth placed teams will fight for the tournament's third and fourth.

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