Zambian Soccer fans have called on the Confederation of African Football – CAF to refund Zambia’s Football Association (FAZ) after the association confirmed that it had spent about K 2.7 million (about US$135,000) in preparation of the under 17 (U17) Junior Chipolopolo side.
The U17 Africa Cup of Nations was scheduled to be held in Morocco, before the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to abruptly cancel the tournament due to the covid-19 pandemic.
FAZ Communication manager Sydney Mungala stated that in football, all Investments made have no surety of guarantee and [its not yet clear that] FAZ will get a refund as CAF has not yet indicated whether there is going to be a refund or any other form of compensation.
Mungala said the team was in residential camp for over a month, and after been in camp for over a month, the team also suffered the travel costs to Morocco as the under 17 national team was scheduled to participate in pre-tournament session.
“There was a scheduled competition which was going to draw participation from the host Morocco, Cameron, Nigeria, a local club called FUS Sabat and the Zambia junior side”, he told ZBT.
However, On March, 8, 2021, when the CAF committee met in Rabat, Morocco to decide on the holding of the 2021 AFCON. They decided to cancel the tournament. The committee was made aware of the constraints faced by some of the association as well as the host country including the fact that the coronavirus pandemic continues to present significant challenges for the organization of international sport.
Speaking in an interview with Zambian Business Times (ZBT), Mungala said it was a disappointment that the tournament was cancelled after Zambia had prepared adequately for it.
“We are disappointed that the tournament was cancelled but we had also offered to host the tournament as Zambia, I remember we hosted the under 20 AFCON, in 2017, which was a CAF tournament. However, CAF has not yet gotten back to us about what they think on our possible suggestion, so we waiting on CAF to respond to us,” he said.
Mungala further revealed that the under 17 national team will continue preparing as this was not the only tournament that they had to prepare for. He said the team is preparing for the COSAFA this year.
Though the Under 20 world cup has also been cancelled, the team will continue preparing and hopefully, the same team can be used for qualifiers for the next under 20 Africa Cup of Nations, because most of them will be eligible.
The Ministry of Sport and the National sports council of Zambia is yet to make their position known on this refund matter though its understood that the government of Zambia contributes financially to the soccer teams tournaments participation.
