By Mutheliso Phiri
Zesco United should be the team participating in the Absa Cup rather than FC MUZA. The Ndola-based club satisfied the qualification criteria on merit and did not circumvent the rules governing eligibility.
The critical issue concerns Zesco United’s match against Mutondo Stars played on 24 August 2025.
That fixture was played as a Week 2 reverse fixture, not as a rescheduled Week 19 fixture. This distinction is central to the qualification debate because the classification of the match determines whether it falls within the first half of the league season.
Available evidence shows that the match was treated as a reversal, not a rescheduled fixture. In practical terms, this meant that the fixture originally scheduled for Week 2 and the one scheduled for Week 19 effectively swapped positions in the calendar.
As a result, the match played on 24 August functioned as the Week 2 fixture, even though the original fixture list circulated before the start of the season was not publicly amended to reflect the change. Such adjustments are often communicated internally to participating clubs, and it is highly likely that the clubs in the MTN Super League were informed accordingly.
The qualification criteria for the Absa Cup are straightforward. A club must have completed half of its league fixtures, facing each opponent once, based on matches played in the first half of the season.
Under that framework, a Week 19 fixture reversed to Week 2 counts as a match played in the first half of the season.
ZESCO United, therefore, satisfied the requirement because they faced Mutondo Stars, as well as every other league opponent, only once during the first round of fixtures.
The attempt to question Zesco United’s eligibility appears to rely on the claim that the match was a rescheduled Week 19 fixture. If that were the case, it would fall outside the first round of matches and could affect qualification calculations.
However, the evidence indicates that the match was not rescheduled. It was reversed. That distinction is decisive.
Because the fixture was reversed rather than postponed and rescheduled, Zesco United completed the first round of matches in accordance with the ABSA Cup qualification criteria. On that basis, their participation in the competition stands on firm procedural grounds.
