By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE  –

THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has announced that it intends to try the electronic ticketing system during the Morocco 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers that start next month.
The introduction of the electronic ticket system is in line with Zambia’s preparedness to host the 2019 AFCON should the country win the bid to stage the continental football showpiece.
FAZ treasurer Kelvin Mutafu said in an interview yesterday that the country’s football governing body was finalising a deal with Mahindra Satyam, a company that developed a ticketing software for 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa, and had been engaged to implement the system in Zambia.
Mutafu said the 2015 AFCON qualifiers will therefore be a benchmark for the implementation of the system ahead of the 2017 Africa Youth Championship (AYC) which Zambia will host and the anticipated staging of the 2019 AFCON.
“We have reached an advanced stage with the Comptick system and our earlier plan was to use the system during the international friendly against Sudan but we hope to do so during the AFCON qualifiers.
The development is to prepare our fans to get acquainted with the system but we will also carry out sensitisation campaigns to ensure everyone understands the system,” he said.
Once implemented, the electronic ticket system will see an end to cumbersome long queues that characterise the purchase of tickets during international matches and curtail unscrupulous people from selling tickets on the black market.