PRESIDENT’S CORNER: AFCON BID TAKES OFF
Football felicitations in the middle of the post FIFA World Cup frenzy. A big congratulations to Argentina for being crowned world champions after beating France on post-match penalties. From the African perspective, we saw a beautiful story written by Morocco by being the first ever African country to reach the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup.
On the domestic front we take many lessons from the world cup experience starting from hosting. Qatar did put up a splendid organisational masterclass that did not just rank among the best football events but a great show of cultural diversity. In our bid to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, we will be looking to learning from their example. Our bid was successfully filed with CAF on December 15, 2022, and we will be in the queue with a few other countries.
We believe our bid stands a very good chance given that Southern Africa has not hosted any AFCON since the 2013 edition staged by South Africa. We also have taken a closer look at the requirements which puts a minimum of six stadia broken down as two with a capacity of at least 40, 000 and another four that will have a capacity of at least 20,000. On our part we already have two CAF certified venues in the National Heroes and Levy Mwanawasa while four other existing stadia will be upgraded to at least 15 and 20, 000 capacity. Government has agreed to build from scratch in Livingstone a 20, 000 capacity stadium which will already supported by top class accommodation as well as an international airport. Part of the catalyst for this bid is the guaranteed government support that has already come through with the signing of all the guarantees required by CAF. Government has directed all sports associations to take advantage of any international events that are open to hosting as part of its wider international diplomacy agenda.
We will draw heavily on the 2017 Under-20 AFCON that was one of the well-organized tournaments. Given the strides that our teams are making, we have no doubt that with the strides our various national teams are making, 2025 could prove a moment of triumph on home soil. CAF is expected to conduct inspections in January while the successful bidder will be announced in February.
Finally, we are excited that the under-20 and under-17 boys’ national teams have secured qualification to the AFCON in Egypt and Algeria respectively. Our under-23 are two matches away from qualification to the AFCON while the Chipolopolo remain on course for the Ivory Coast 2023 (to be played in 2024) AFCON. We are not relenting in preparing these teams with the under-20 already in camp for a fortnight now while another local assemblage largely comprised of the under-23 lads will be in Kuwait for an international friendly match. Our plan is to keep these teams engaged prior to important assignments. The FIFA World Cup bound Copper Queens are also following a program that has seen them play Colombia already with the next international friendly match set for February. Preparations will intensify as we draw closer to the tournament which takes place in July next year. We are happy that FIFA has already announced where our team will be based which clears the way for panning with the Zambian community in Australia and New Zealand already eager to welcome the team with warm support. We have no doubt the team will deliver as they have done always.
Have a productive week.