Dear Editor
Four of the six 2023 Afcon qualifiers will be played in fourteen days May 30, 2022 and June 14, 2022 with the remaining two fixtures to be played in September, 2022. We will know our AFCON fate in the next ten to eleven weeks’ time.
This set of qualifiers, not unique to Zambia entails that for any team to make it to AFCON, needs a good reservoir of players as there will be no time for recovery in an event of a player(s) picking injuries or testing positive to Covid-19.
While the calendar may look like a death penalty from afar, our destiny is dependent on what we do the next two months also. Playing four AFCON qualifiers in a space of fourteen days is not only tough but extremely challenging and exhausting for any team. The 2022 FIFA /CAF calendar is extremely congested, all teams affected at global level, World Cup bound teams will only have access to their players a week before World Cup 2022 commences.
Chipolopolo, last seen in 2015 at AFCON needs to be in the best possible shape to avoid missing AFCON again. We should not repeat the mistakes that made us miss the last three AFCON editions. With no FIFA window between now and the first qualifier, the next time we see full strength Chipolopolo could be in a qualifier. Tough road ahead of us but it can be done.
Reluctantly, let me remind readers again that Chipolopolo boys haven’t qualified for the last three editions of AFCON and any more failure would not only be inexcusable but may require some kind of a commission of inquiry to establish the obvious. The risk of such negative consistency is that it may drag Zambians into believing that mediocrity is normal and acceptable. Acceptable failure? Gosh!!! Excuse me….
#ChipolopoloForever
Mumbo Lombe
