Winger Xiomara Mapepa has been withdrawn from the Copper Queens camp in South Korea due to Indiscipline, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has confirmed.
A statement from Football house by Communications Manager, Sydney Mungala accessed by the ZamFoot Crew confirmed the development.
This comes barely 24 hours after the Copper Queens suffered a 5-2 loss to the Asian Tigers in the first of their planned two International friendly matches.
“The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) wishes to inform its members and stakeholders that it has withdrawn Copper Queens midfielder Xiomara Mapepa from the FIFA window international friendly matches in South Korea due to disciplinary reasons.”
FAZ acting General Secretary Iva Lengwe told FAZ Media that Mapepa has since been released from national duty and will be heading home.
“FAZ has in liaison with the team management and the host nation arrived at the decision that was made in line with the disciplinary code of conduct and also basic standards of conduct on foreign soil,” Lengwe says.
Meanwhile Lengwe says the team is focused on Tuesday’s international friendly match against South Korea to conclude the international window action.
“We are happy that the team remains focused on preparing for the FIFA World Cup with a second match coming on Tuesday. While the team lost the first match, we are confident that the second match will be a better showing,” Lengwe says.
“South Korea provided a very good test for our team as it is the level that we will be expecting at the World Cup.”
Mapepa was a second half substitute in Friday’s 5-2 loss to South Korea at the Suwon World Cup Stadium.
The Copper Queens are using the games against South Korea as part of their preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Zambia is among 32 teams that have qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand. The Copper Queens are in Group C alongside Spain, Japan and Costa Rica.
Please elaborate at least on the nature of the indiscipline without leaving us guessing. What did she actually do?
My thought as well
Kapena anagona out
She is my sister xiomara mapepa…what offense did she commit please, it’s embarrassing kaa for a big team like that
According to the media reports she was caught smoking dagga which is against the social environment.
It’s a big “NO” to narcotic drugs!
Fifa sporting is all about natural behaviour.
If this is true, she is one dumb little girl; where in South Korea did she buy the weed…no where at all! She had it on her all that time, dumb, she could have been arrested for that and put the team in trouble…talk about embarrassing Zambia!! She had to be sent home.
According to the media reports she was caught smoking dagga which is against the social environment.
It’s a big “NO” to narcotic drugs!
Fifa sporting is all about natural behaviour.
But how did she manage to sneak in dagga in a foreign country without being noticed.
Mapepa is the most influential player and we can not afford to sideline her at this stage. The decision can be corrected and council her. That could be an error, we all make mistakes at one point and another , we’re human please let her be counselled . She is the most influential player with good movies. Now tell us what she did before we say much please . You can’t just tell the action done , without reasons leaving people in speculation .
She was caught smoking dagga.
If she doesn’t reform, the game of football has to move.
A lesson has to be learnt that we must not rely on 1 winger. Zambia has a lot of talented left wingers who can feel the place.
A lot are mushroomed in the remote parts of the country.
There are even better left wingers who are languishing in the remote rural areas who can be trained n produce better touches than her.
Drugs are not accepted in the “Sporting Arena”!
At some point I only thought guys are the only ones that do such stuff , very disappointed if what we’ve heard is true
IMWEE
Too bad for mapepa stay strong ,, everything happens at a specific given time
Dagga from where? She could have been arrested, there and then. Tell me something else
If truly she was cought smoking,then correctly descipline her and replace her number with those good talented girls.But don’t condemn her to the point of destroying her career please.Take her as a child who needs good encouragement from good parents.
Confidential is needed in th copper queen team so that if one person do something wrong, CORRECT them secretly and make tough actions to introduce positive behaviours as professionals in them rather than rushing to the media.We are all at risk of making errors.
How I wish I can meet you this person with this perfect response , please we can’t make such a decision at this point surly she can’t be ruled out at the moment or at this point. Find a way of making that person to be there otherwise if the team needs her know what’s going on there, we been told that some top top has been paid to remove some good players there to put there kid’s who we’ve never even heard of them playing football before it’s really unfair for the girls let’s speak our for this girl sure.
What wrong did she do fwaka ba Bruce that’s the one you can make a girl lose her career you must be joking naimwea this is very unfair did she abort a child or did she kill someone ai , let the girl go back oelse we’ll make plans
No wonder our ladies like dressing up as men.Plz control the girls.we love them very much and we would like to see them reach the finals during world cup games.Go shipolopolo go.