The 2017 edition of the U17 COSAFA championships will take place between 21st -30th July in Mauritius. With only about 9 days to go Zambia has just finalised assembling a squad for this tournament but yet to release the final list.
Charles Bwale who is the teams First Assistant Coach believes starting the process a month plus from the tournament could have been an ideal situation but won’t use this as an excuse to perform badly.
” I think a month plus would be a better scenario for preparation but we will not use this as an excuse. We are going their to compete and not just take part. We will do our best to prepare the team as the technical team,” Bwale told Zambianfootball.co.zm in an exclusive interview
The coach believes the boys have improved tremendously after about six days of training.
” The boys have improved tremendously since we started this camp. Their is massive improvement in terms of physical conditioning and technique,” said Bwale
The team whose senior coach is Numba Mumamba was expected to go through the MRI process last evening but they are yet to do so with about 7 boys guaranteed a place having already undergone the same process last year. Only those born on 1st January 2001 and after are eligible for this tournament .
The boys had a friendly match with Blue Bullets academy. The Young Chipolopolo side scored four goals through Jonathan Kapelembe (penalty), Dennis Phiri, Enock Musonda and Michael Kafusha.
Zambia have a tough pool at these Championships having been drawn in Group B alongside last year’s beaten finalists South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar.
This FAZ…smh!!! How do they only give 9 days for the U17? This is disorganization at its very best.
First they forgot about the womens U20 now they neglected the U17 until last minute. What next? Do they know that they are responsible for more than just the Senior Zambia national team and the U20?
This is kamanga leadership for you and someone was telling me that kamanga is a season administer any way let’s wait and see the kind of the team that he has assembled l hope they are not over age like last year
My recommendation for FAZ is to build a master schedule that shows all the national team matches and commitments. The schedule should include the U17, U20, U23, and senior mens and womens national teams.
Also included in that schedule should be when teams go into camp, when teams get announced, when they travel, what bills have to be paid. Then you need your logistics guys or whoever to start preparing for the whole year. Also the financial folks should lay out the cost of all these events. That’s the first step in planning. FAZ should have an idea of their expenditures at that point and can also set milestones with a plan for the future.
Organization is killing us. You can’t neglect the U17 like this and expect to continue to reap success at U20 level in future.