By GWEN CHIPASULA –
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) says it is devastated by the national futsal team’s failure to qualify for the 2016 World Cup slated for Colombia in September.
FAZ acting general secretary Katongo Kabungo said in an interview yesterday that Football House was, however, happy that the team made it to the semi-finals, the first ever for Zambia.
Zambia was eliminated in the semi-finals, and fought for the remaining World Cup spot reserved for Africa which they eventually lost to Mozambique, who joined Morocco and Egypt.
Kabungo said FAZ would need to sit down with the futsal technical bench to see how best the sport could be popularised.
“We are happy with the progress the team has made over the one year or so. We won’t say much on their performance because we did not get any report on the games yet,” he said.
Meanwhile, team captain Arnold Chishala said the tournament served as an eye-opener to the squad as they were competing at the Africa Cup for the first time in eight years.
Chishala said the tournament had given hope to the players, adding that the team had promised to put up their best performance when they compete next time.
Zambia came out fourth in the competition that was competed by eight African countries which saw Morocco win after beating Egypt 2-1 in the finals.
