By Kalumiana Kalumiana
ZESCO United coach Mathews Njobvu insists the Zambian Super League is not of poor quality despite their early end to their 2025 2026 CAF Confederation Cup group stage campaign with 4 losses and with 2 games left to play.
On Sunday, ZESCO lost 1-0 away to Kaizer Chiefs in Durban to see their CAF Confederation Cup quarterfinal hopes end with two games to spare.
ZESCO are bottom of Group D with zero points, while Chiefs are 3rd on 7 points, tied with Al Masry of Egypt, who are a point behind their compatriots Zamalek heading into this weekend’s penultimate group stage fixtures.
They will host Zamalek this Sunday in their final home game at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola before heading to Egypt to play Al Masry next weekend.
Njobvu said in an interview that every club that reaches the group stages qualifies on merit from the preliminary stages.
”No, I would say each and every league has its own pedigree, which we call maybe history about it. It’s how strong you perform in your league. And you’ll find that even if you go out to the African continental football, you’ll perform accordingly. Where you see that you are not doing well, you need to work on those lines,” Njobvu said.
”So far as it has been going, I think the Zambian football is also going on the high. South African football is going on the high. Egyptian football is going on the high. It’s how you prepare yourselves. For us to be in the group stage, it means something is happening within our goals. So we’re planning now to move forward from where we have reached. “
ZESCO and CAF Champions League group stage envoys Power Dynamos are representing Zambia in the elite phase for the first time since 2021 when the country lost its 4 continental slots.
Interestingly, those 4 continental slots came about due to Zesco’s good showing in the 2016 CAF Champions League and 2017 CAF Confederation Cup when they reached the semifinals and quarterfinals respectively.
However, Power are still in contention for their ongoing CAF Champions League Group A campaign after beating Rivers United 1-0 away in Nigeria on Sunday.
Power are 3rd in Group A on 4 points, three points behind RS Berkane of Morocco who they host this Saturday in Ndola.
Egyptian club Pyramids FC leads Group A on 10 points.
