FAZ TO BEEF UP SECURITY
…as Copper Queens are set to regroup for Morocco tie
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) says it will beef up security for the Zambia National Womens team home match against the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco in the first leg of the final Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifier.
The Copper Queens are scheduled to regroup this week to kick off preparations for the back-to-back final round Olympic qualifiers against the Atlas Lionesses.
Zambia will host Morocco on April 5th at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium before traveling for the reverse fixture slated for April 9th at the Stade Prince Moulay EL Hassan in Rabat.
FAZ president Andrew Kamanga said the Copper Queens technical bench led by coach Bruce Mwape is set to present a program for the two crunch ties against Morocco.
Kamanga said fans will need to be in their best behavior and support the Copper Queens who are in an enviable position of achieving back-to-back Olympic qualification.
“We should all guard against some unsavory tendencies we saw of a few fans throwing missiles on the pitch when the team either scores or concedes a goal. While security will be doubled for the next match and beyond, we expect fans to make everyone’s work easier by being at their most civilized behavior,” Kamanga said.
Meanwhile, Kamanga is delighted that the independent selectors and the FAZ technical directorate stood their ground to admit players that were of the right age for the under-15 boys heading to Morocco for an invitational tournament.
“While we opened up the doors to capture as many eligible and promising talents, we struggled with getting the right candidates from some regions. In some cases FAZ had to put its foot down to ensure that only eligible candidates made the cut.
“While we appreciate that representation from every corner of our country is important, it should however be of candidates that are of the right age. Regrettably we had to weed out some ineligible candidates after a thorough check,” Kamanga said.
He noted that the Morocco test will provide an excellent test for the U-15 boys that expect to form the backbone of the under-17 squad that will participate in AFCON qualifiers.
On the Chipolopolo boys who are set to compete in the four nations tournament kicked off yesterday with games for the under-20 teams, Kamanga said; “All the teams participating have duly signed up to bring their A-sides as this is a perfect opportunity to prepare for the June FIFA window games. We will not have another window before the competitive one in June to prepare for our back-toback matches against Morocco and Tanzania.”
Kamanga emphasized that there could have been no better opportunity than to play two highly competitive games as preparations for the games against Morocco and Tanzania.
The Chipolopolo will kick off the four nations tournament with a match against rivals Zimbabwe on Saturday before meeting Kenya or Malawi in the last game on March 26.