. MWANZA

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has discarded the traditional orange strip as a home colour for the World Cup-bound Zambia under-17 women team, preferring the all-green for home and the memorable all-white as an away jersey in Costa Rica.
Sports gear manufacturing company, Nike remains the dressers for the Zambia women team at FIFA Costa Rica 2014 Women’s Under-17 World Cup.
FAZ spokesperson Erick Mwanza said yesterday that the green jersey had been submitted as the home colour during the World Cup, replacing the traditional orange with the shiny white to be the second jersey.
“We have a running contract with Nike and they will dress the girls at the World Cup. But the colours are changed a bit for the girls. Green will be the home and white as the away kit. We have a lot of faith in the team and technical staff and we believe this will come in as an extra boost,” Mwanza said.
The white jersey has a lot of happy memories for Zambia as that was the kit the women wore when they beat their nemesis South Africa 3-1 away to qualify on a 6-4 aggregate for a maiden World Cup appearance.
Albert Kachinga’s team is the first-ever Zambia women team at any level to qualify to the World Cup.
A similar sentimental attachment to a jersey exists in the green colour for the Chipolopolo, which the fans prefer ahead of the home orange.
When Zambia won the historic Africa Cup of Nations in 2012, the players wore green shirts and black shorts.
And FAZ has announced that next weekend’s Africa Women’s Championship qualifier between Zambia and Tanzania will be played on Friday, February 14 at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
Mwanza said Friday had been agreed by both Zambia and Tanzania as it suited the programmes the two countries would be trying to achieve.
“We first of all do not want any divided attention from the crowds as Nkana will be playing on Saturday. These two are national commitments and we want crowds at both games. Tanzania also asked for Friday and we thought it was best for us as well. The girls are shaping up well,” he said.
Zambia will be involved in the preliminary round mix for the Namibia Africa Women’s Championships with the return game set for the weekend of February 28 to March 2.
The winner of this tie will player the winners between Botswana and Zimbabwe for a place at the Africa Cup over two legs with the first coming May and the return in June.
The top three teams will qualify to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada next year.