Times of Zambia | Wada, FAZ in crisis talks

Published On April 24, 2018 » 1899 Views» By Evans Musenya Manda » Football, Sports

0 stars

By SANDRA MWILA and NDINAWE SIMPELWE
NATIONAL football team coach Wedson Nyirenda yesterday held crisis talks with Sports Ministers Moses Mawere and his employers (FAZ) over his future following increasing tension over his stay at the helm of the team.
But all three parties remained tight-lipped on the finer details of the discussion with the minister saying in an interview after the meeting that the resolutions would be made public in due course.
“The meeting was administrative and we can’t divulge information now. The nation will be informed. What I can say is that our discussion was centred on football development,” Mawere said.
The minister, however, said that the meeting was on how the dwindling performance of the Chipolopolo and how results can improve.
“We discussed initiatives of how football can be brought back to life. Measures will be announced. You will see changes but they won’t affect anybody. Even the fans will be happy,” Mawere said.
Zambia assistant coach Beston Chambeshi says the COSAFA Senior challenge Cup quarter-final tie against Namibia will be a good test before the sides play each other in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier.
Meanwhile, Namibia coach Ricardo Manetti said football had improved in his country and vowed to give Zambia a tough time when they clash at the COSAFA tournament next month.
The Chipolopolo were drawn against the Brave Warriors in the COSAFA competition to be held in South Africa and would in September face the same team in the AFCON qualifiers.
Chambeshi said in interview after yesterday’s morning training session at Heroes National Stadium that the Namibia game would be a good AFCON qualifier dress-rehearsal and a good challenge.
“COSAFA is a different tournament. Namibia is in our group for the AFCON and this match will be a good rehearsal. We shall see how we handle them,” Chambeshi said.
Chambeshi said he was happy with the fitness levels of the team and that the new call ups were putting in effort.
The technical bench summoned a 30 man team for the tournament with the core being new call ups and only 23 are in camp while the rest from Zesco United and Buildcon were expected to join after playing on Sunday.
“We have a number of new players and that shows that we have a pool of players that we can tap from. We have not dropped any player as we prepare and we shall still fall back on some players that we left out for this camp,” Chambeshi said.
From Windhoek, Manetti said the two teams knew each other very well having faced-off in recent matches and was expecting a tough match.
“I still believe that Namibian football has improved over the past three years and this will give us confidence going in to this encounter,” Manetti said.
He said the match will be tough for both sides but Namibia will be determined to prove they are getting better.
“My first thought when we were drawn against Zambia was… Zambia again? When you start at quarter-final then you expect a tough opponent. But this will be tough for Zambia and tough for us as well,” Manetti said.
In the last nine meetings between the two teams, Namibia has won four times while Zambia has picked up three wins and the last match ended in a scoreless draw at the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco.