U17 SELECTION TIGHTENS UP

The screening process for the selected under-17 national team players from across the 10 provinces enters the final phase with the Copperbelt, Luapula and North Western shortlisted lads joining their colleagues in Lusaka.

Coach Oswald Mutapa has selected 43 lads from Lusaka, Central, Northern, Southern, Muchinga, Eastern and Western provinces while another 24 lads from the Copperbelt, Luapula and North Western have been picked.

The selected lads are currently lodged at the FAZ Technical Centre in Lusaka with the numbers expected to reduce further before the players can undergo the requisite MRI scan.

Zambia will be hoping to defend the Cosafa U17 in Mauritius next month.

The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Zambia is in Group B alongside South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho.

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s year’s 12-team tournament will be staged in Mauritius from 19-29 July.

The importance of this championship has been heightened by the decision of the Confederation of African Football that the winner will advance to represent the Cosafa region at the eight-team African U-17 Nations Cup in Tanzania next year (12-26 May 2019).

That, in turn, serves to determine which four African countries will play at the U-17 World Cup in Peru (17 September-8 October 2019).

Twelve of Cosafa’s 14 members participate in the southern African championship this year, which is the third year in a row it is being played in Mauritius.

Group A: Mauritius (A1), Botswana (A2), Namibia (A3), Seychelles (A4)

Group B: Zambia (B1), Mozambique (B2), Lesotho (B3), South Africa (B4)

Group C: Angola (C1), Malawi (C2), Swaziland (C3), Zimbabwe (C4)

[Source: Fazfootball.com]