The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has tasked new Copper Queens coach Nora Elizabeth Häuptle with winning the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
FAZ President Andrew Kamanga revealed that Nora had already experienced the warm aura of the Zambian people since her arrival on Thursday.
Kamanga who speaking at Nora Häuptle’s unveiling held at Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka was quick to pay tribute to her predecessor Bruce Mwape.
“ I may start by welcoming Coach Nora Hauptle to our beautiful country! I have no doubt she would have already experienced the warm aura of the Zambian people. I have no doubt that it is part of this warmly Zambian culture that may have partly enticed her to come to Zambia.
Today is a great day in the history of our country as we open a beautiful chapter in our game. Before I talk about the unfolding chapter, let me pay tribute to the immediate past coach Bruce Mwape and his technical bench for their contribution to the growth of the women’s game,” Kamanga said.
“In 2018, we took a bold step to reorganize our women’s technical bench that we tasked to qualify us to the Africa Cup of Nations where we had only qualified once and had yet to win a match. Our message to the bench at that point was also to target Olympic and World Cup qualification.
In their six-year span, Zambia was able to qualify to three Africa Cup of Nations in 2018, 2022, and 2024, including winning bronze in 2022 in Morocco. They additionally qualified to back-to-back Olympics in 2020 and 2024 in Tokyo and Paris, respectively, and took Zambia to its maiden FIFA World Cup in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.”
Kamanga says there was consensus among football minds that the Copper Queens needed to be steered in a new course.
“After this season, it was time to set new targets and reinvigorate the team with fresher challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, looking at where we have come from and where we are now, there was consensus among football minds that we needed to reinvigorate the energy in the team and steer a new course. It is not uncommon in football for teams to reinvigorate themselves, which is exactly what we are doing for our team,” Kamanga said.
“We have appointed Coach Nora with clear targets that she should take the team to the next level. One of the targets that we have set is that of winning the Women Africa Cup of Nations coming up in July and also making sure that we qualify for the 2026 edition, which will be a qualifier for the FIFA World Cup. We have also tasked the technical bench to qualify us to the next Olympics.”
“Beyond the Copper Queens assignment, we will expect that the new coach will keep tabs on the various junior teams that have talent knocking on the senior national team door.
We have also attached some local coaches to the technical bench to ensure knowledge transfer, as it remains our long-term goal to have local coaches handle our national teams. We are mindful that to get to a point where we have all local benches, we have to empower them with training. We are already sending many of our local coaches for advanced training like the CAF and CAF Pro licenses,” Kamanga added.
FAZ have have identified training programs for the former gaffer Bruce Mwape who will be sent to Morocco to pursue CAF Pro courses.
Kamanga was also quick to thank the Head of State, His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema for his continued support towards football.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to thank our patron, President Hichilema, for his continued support towards the game. Through his leadership, we have seen the desire to expand the memorandum of understanding between FAZ and the Ministry of Youth, Sport, and Arts to include women’s football. We believe that part of this bold step to appoint an expatriate coach for the Copper Queens is motivated by the fervent atmosphere created by his government,” he said.
“Finally, I wish to congratulate Coach Nora and invite the rest of the nation to support her on her new mission. Welcome to Zambia, and may God guide you on this journey.”
Nora Elizabeth Häuptle has penned a three year deal taking over from Bruce Mwape as Copper Queens head coach.
