. Mrs Scott

By YVONNE SAKALA –

REPUBLICAN Vice-President Guy Scott yesterday feted the Zambia Under-17 woman team that participated at the Costa Rica 2014 FIFA Women Cup finals.

Speaking at the luncheon held at the Government House in Lusaka, Scott encouraged the players to continue working hard and pick lessons from the Costa Rica outing for future competitions.

“We are proud of what you did and I hope you can draw lessons from the World Cup and grow in strength ahead of your future engagements,” he said.

Scott’s wife, Charlotte, who is the team patron, said plans were under way to ensure that all the team members were taken back to school to continue with their education.

Charlotte said there was need for the girls to concentrate on school unlike just relying on playing football and that records would be obtained from the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) to see at which levels the girls reached in terms of their education.

She said the programme would start with the players already in schools by visiting their respective schools so that arrangements could be made for them to catch up on lessons they missed during the outing in Costa Rica.

“We have a plan to make sure each member of the team that went to Costa Rica goes back to school. There is no soccer without education, football development should be part of school and we will make sure each one of you is in school and I will personally monitor your results,” she said.

She said the team should work towards graduating into the Under-20, 23 and finally the senior team having gained the necessary experience from playing at the World Cup finals.

FAZ vice president Boniface Mwamelo expressed gratitude to Government for the support rendered to the team before and after the tournament in Costa Rica and asked the patron to help the association prepare the senior women team that is competing in the African Women Championship (AWC) qualifiers.