By SANDRA MWILA –

.Liwewe

THE national football team next week will fly out to camp in North Africa for the fourth edition of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament to be played in Morocco.
The team which yesterday left for Mongu for week’s camp leaves for North Africa on January 3.
FAZ General Secretary Ponga Liwewe said the executive had a meeting and agreed the team camps in North Africa.
Though refusing to mention the exact destination, Morocco is the logical destination as the FAZ earlier this year signed a partnership agreement with that country’s FA for camping and exchange programmes.
“The team will camp in North Africa and will leave on January 3, it has been agreed and we will be making contacts with countries with facilities,” he said.
And FAZ has dropped Chris Chibuye as the Chipolopolo Team Manager with immediate effect.
FAZ Communciation Manager Desmond Katongo said Chibuye will be replaced by Zambia under-20 Team Manager Hastings Ndovi.
Katonga added that Equipment Manager  Jerad Sakala will be replaced by Goodson Mboozi.
“The changes have been made on the technical bench and they are with immediate effect,”he said
The team yesterday shifted base to Mongu in a bid to attain optimal conditioning for the CHAN tournament which will be held next month in Morocco.
With less than three weeks to the tournament kick off, FAZ Communication Manager Desmond Katongo said the team only returns to Lusaka on January 2.
Katongo explained that the essence of camping in sandy town of Mongu was to avoid disturbances and also improve on the players physical aspect of the game.
“The team will be in Mongu because they need privacy, they need to focus, bond and work on the physical bits like endurance. Mongu provides an excellent terrain to attain all these,” Katongo said.
He said of the 29 players coach Wedson Nyirenda summoned, just Toaster Nsabata had not travelled with the team.
“Toaster has not travelled with the team, he is doing medicals and I can’t divulge more details,” Katongo said.
Nsabata who is the CHAN squad first-choice goalkeeper was not part of the Lusaka camp last week with the technical bench stating that he had a family commitment.
But rumours circulating suggested that Nsabata was in South Africa with the ambition of joining the ABSA Premier Soccer League.