By Kalumiana Kalumiana
The next chapter in Zambian women’s football begins this Thursday when the mission for a third successive Olympic qualification kicks off away against Uganda for the 2028 Los Angeles Games in a second round, first-leg qualifier at Hamz Stadium in Kampala.
Thursday’s 2028 Olympics assignment will be under new management and also starts the very difficult road to redemption for the Zambia women’s national team.
Firstly, Zambia begins life without Swiss-born coach Nora Hauptle who left the post on September 19 after a year and a half in charge when the team flopped at 2026 WAFCON after failing to make it out of the group stages.
Assistant coach Charles Haalubono has been given interim charge of Zambia, and it starts with African women’s football, the most difficult qualifying competition.
The task for Haalubono should not be hyped, as it is anything but, and will test both coach and players’ resolve over potentially four gruelling rounds.
Two Olympics tickets await the African women’s teams who battle in parallel qualifier streams that run over five rounds, with this October stage the second and will conclude in November and December 2027.
Both Zambia and Uganda enjoyed a first-round bye and entered the race in the second round.
But the pressure is on Zambia after an unprecedented two successive Olympic outings at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games and Paris 2024.
The late Bruce Mwape set the high bar with back-to-back qualifications, and now Haalubono has some high standards to maintain on top of the big shoes to fill.
Secondly, the Olympic qualifiers will be Zambia’s first engagement since the 2026 WAFCON flop, which was the pathway to the 2028 FIFA Women’s World Cup should they have advanced to the quarterfinals and beyond.
And with that background, Zambia captain and striker Barbra Banda admits they have an obligation to the nation to redeem themselves.
“Honestly, I think we are looking at this game very seriously, looking at the World Cup qualification, which didn’t go our way, but we focus on this. We need to qualify for the Olympics. We know how important it is to go to the Olympics. So this is what we are looking forward to, and we are taking each game one step at a time,” Banda said.
“Also looking at our team, we have new players that are coming in with good character. So I think it would be more fantastic if we qualify for the third time.”
Zambia will host Uganda in the final leg on October 13 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
The winner over both legs will return to third-round action in February, 2027 to play the winner of the Ghana versus Mauritius match.
