By Mubukwanu Kaingu
Zambia left for their two-week-long international camp in Saudi Arabia yesterday for the teams’ final phase of its 2023 AFCON buildup program.
Zambia will set up a training base in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah for the next ten days ahead of the 2023 AFCON that Ivory Coast will host from January 13 to February 11.
Football Association of Zambia spokesperson Sydney Mungala said in an interview that two-thirds of the team comprising of home and foreign-based players would leave in two groups via Dubai and Doha.
“The team leaves at 21h45 (Tuesday) on Qatar Airways. They will leave in two batches while others are on Emirates,” Mungala said.
The flight itinerary is due to flight congestion in the middle of the global peak winter air travel season.
Mungala said they would be joined in transit to Jeddah by the final two European-based call-ups including Saudi-based striker Fashion Sakala to complete the 27-member team heading to AFCON.
“Only Patson Daka, Frankie Musonda, Gift Mphande and Fashion Sakala will join us in Jeddah,” Mungala said.
Chipolopolo will play Cameroon in a friendly during their Saudi camp on January 9.
Zambia are in Group F at 2023 AFCON where they will play DR Congo on January 17, and Tanzania on January 21 before closing their preliminary pool games on January 24 against Morocco.
The top two sides from the six-group competition plus the best four third-placed teams will advance to the last 16 knockout phase of the 24-nation tournament.
Meanwhile, Tanzania has also set up a pre-2023 AFCON camp in the Middle East just like DR Congo who are in the United Arab Emirates.
Morocco are camping at home where they will play Gambia in a friendly on January 7 in Rabat.
Tanzania has set up camp in Cairo, Egypt where they arrived on New Year’s Day.
“We are going to Egypt, Cairo we have friendly games there. They have prepared one friendly game for us there,” Tanzania coach Adel Amrouche told local media in his pre-departure briefing.
“We will try and play a second or third game but the most important thing is we will be together in one place.
“At this moment, don’t really think about which country we will camp in but how we are going to be ready for this competition.”
