By FELIX MALUNGA –
ZAMBIA’S quest for a place at the  2016 Orange African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda will begin with a dicey preliminary round qualifier against Namibia in June.
The Chipolopolo will be attempting to make a second appearance in the CHAN finals, a competition exclusively for footballers playing in their domestic leagues.
Forty-two teams will be fighting for 16 CHAN slots based on zonal distributions of the national associations affiliated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
According to the draws for the fourth edition of CHAN held at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt yesterday, only three countries from the 12 Southern Africa nations will qualify to the Rwanda 2016 finals.
Namibia’s Brave Warriors will host the home-bred Chipolopolo, who won bronze in 2009, in the first leg of the preliminary round on June 20 in Windhoek.
Zambia, whose only appearance at the CHAN was during the inaugural 2009 edition in Ivory Coast, will then host Ricardo Mannetti’s Brave Warriors for the decisive preliminary round fixture.
The winner of this fixture will qualify to the final stage which concludes on the weekend of August 28-30 where 15 teams will emerge to join hosts, Rwanda for the CHAN final tournament set for January 16 – February 7.
Other preliminary round fixtures for the Southern African zone will see Zimbabwe face Comoros, Lesotho taking on Botswana while Mozambique have a date with Seychelles.
South Africa, the 2014 CHAN hosts which was won by Libya, will be up against Mauritius while Swaziland will tangle with Angola.
DR Congo, the inaugural CHAN champions, will begin their race in the Central African region against the Central African Republic with the 2011 winners Tunisia taking on holders, Libya.