“We are delighted that the FIFA president has accepted my invitation to come to Zambia in 2018 after we had fruitful discussions with him on various developmental issues,” Kamanga said. In 2016, Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga announced through the federation’s official mouthpiece that the 25th Anniversary commemoration of the 1993 Gabon Air Disaster will be graced by the International football ruling body FIFA panjandrum Gianni Infantino.
27 April will forever be upheld as a sacrosanct day in Zambia; the day when the country remembers the pantheon of football players and officials who perished in a plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 500 metres offshore from Libreville, Gabon. The flight was shuttling the Zambia national football team to a FIFA World Cup qualifier tie against Senegal in Dakar.
A stratagem by Mr Kamanga to extend an invite to the global football panjandrum – albeit whether the invite will be honored it remains bleak. With only hours prior to the sacrosanct days commemoration , we are still waiting for a signal whether Mr Infantino will be coming to Zambia. Mama please give us a signal!
Meanwhile, last year ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier match between the Super Eagles and the Chipolopolo, via a telephone interview I featured on Sports Planet – a Magazine Sports Show and a production of Complete Sports Studios on Beats FM in Lagos, Nigeria. The host Babatunde Koiki asked me how much qualifying to Russia meant to our all time pantheon (It’s a mishap we fell short once again).
BABATUNDE: James the whole of Africa remembers with sadness the 1993 disaster that saw almost the entire Zambian team wiped out in a plane crash and personally I fell that Zambia sees qualification for the FIFA World Cup as a holy grail, a quest that will put the souls of those players to rest finally. So just how much will it mean to your country to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Russia?
JAMES: Well qualifying to the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup or just any other FIFA World Cup means a lot to Zambia and to the fallen heroes. Because the plane crashed on their way to Dakar in Senegal, where they were going to to face Senegal in the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier. Because of the tragedy Zambia failed to qualify to that showpiece that was held in the United States of America. So Chipolopolo qualifying to Russia will be like completing the job that our fallen heroes couldn’t finish. It means a lot to them just like when we won the 2012 Africa Cup of the Nations in the same country where the plane crashed, Gabon.
Zamfoot is it 27th April or 28th April?? Help me out here guys or else we could end up having a wrong day for such an important acassion
The 1993 Zambia national football team air disaster occurred in the late evening of 27 April 1993 when a Zambian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo (registration AF-319) crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 500 metres (550 yards) offshore from Libreville, Gabon. The flight was carrying most of the Zambian national football team to a FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Senegal in Dakar. All 25 passengers and five crew members were killed. A Gabonese official investigation into the accident concluded that the pilot had shut down the wrong engine after a fire. The investigation found that pilot fatigue and an instrument error had contributed to the accident.