Kamambo promises better 2020 for women’s football Felton Kamambo

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA president Felton Kamambo believes they have done their homework regarding women’s football that will ensure national teams participate smoothly in continental qualifiers next year.

He is confident the association will pool resources to cater for the Mighty Warriors in the Women Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The association also entered the Under-20 national women team to participate in the 2020 World Cup qualifiers.

Last week, the Mighty Warriors were drawn against Mauritius in the first round of the Women Nations Cup while the Young Mighty Warriors will battle Malawi in the preliminary round.

“We have paid some money which was outstanding, especially for the COSAFA tournament, and believe all the players will heed the national team call without any challenge,’’ said Kamambo.

“We are also looking at having a women’s league in all the regions so that we will have a wider base to select players from.
“We have also put some disciplinary measures in place so that any aggrieved party can have their grievances resolved in an amicable way.

“We also encourage technical departments to select committed players who know what it means to don a national team badge.”
Kamambo conceded ZIFA needed to put their house in order and do their part regarding the teams’ camping and participation in the qualifiers.

“We just hope that the garnished accounts issue would have been resolved by the time the teams need funding,’’ he said.
“We still have US$180 000 which is locked up in our account.

“However, in January we will get fresh allocations from FIFA, so we are banking on that and we should be able to operate.
“Our hope was that by the time the High Court year closes we would have resolved the cases.
“We are confident that we will win the cases as precedence has already been set with earlier cases.’’

With FIFA and CAF taking a keen interest in the development of women’s football, ZIFA said they don’t want to be left out.
The Mighty Warriors qualified for the 2016 Olympics.

“We believe we have a realistic chance to play at the Word Cup with a women’s football team,’’ said Kamambo.
“We have taken a holistic approach which will see us develop the game from the age groups and that is why we have entered the teams in competitions, starting from the Under-17, Under-20 up to the senior team.

“We are taking the bottom-up approach hoping to reap the rewards in the near future.’’
Recently, CAF president Ahmad Ahmad officially opened the continent’s first-ever Women’s Football Taskforce Workshop in Cairo. Interestingly, this year’s CAF draw saw a record 36 women’s national teams being considered for the Africa Women Cup of Nations after they were entered by their associations.

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