The Zambia National Women’s and Men’s Hockey team have qualified for the Egypt 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
In an interview with Lusaka star, Zambia Men’s Hockey Team Coach, Floyd Chomba said the team managed to qualify after beatingZimbabwe in the second game of the AFCON Qualifiers.
“We played the first game with Zimbabwe and it was tough and managed to score a 4-3 then played Eswatini which was very easy because it was their first international game,” Chomba said.
“Later on [we] played Namibia but they managed to go away with a win but by then we had already qualified because the host Zimbabwe had already lost to Namibia [then] finally [we] played the final which we lost 4 nil and settled for a silver.”
Chomba said that despite the team experiencing financial challenges and arriving late, they still managed to win their first game.
“It was amazing that they were strong enough mentally hold on to the home crowd team, but i think the boys knew exactly why they went through everything that they went through,” Chomba added.
“But all in all we made sure that we qualified for the AFCON, it will be the first time since we qualified after a very long time.
Zambian Women’s Hockey Team, Coach Samuel Tagwireyi said the girls lost their first game but later qualified after playing third and forth playoffs against Eswatini.
“The girls played their first game against Zimbabwe and lost 4-2 ,then won their game against Eswatini later had a draw against Namibia then played Eswatini again in their third and fourth playoffs because Eswatini had won against Zimbabwe,” said Tagwireyi.
Meanwhile, Zambia Hockey Association(ZAHA), Vice Chairperson Valentine Ziba says the association will ensure that the teams prepare adequately for the 2025 AFCON.
“The first thing which we will do as an association is to come up with a local organizing committee or a fundraising committee which will look into the aspect of funds which are needed and also come up with a budget and look at the funds which are needed to take both teams to the AFCON,” said Ziba.
He appealed to the corporate world to provide sponsorship for the teams.