Zambia has withdrawn as hosts of the 2019 U23 AFCON.
FAZ says the decision to pull out as hosts was due to economic reasons.
“FAZ decided to withdraw from hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations edition after thorough consultations with the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development,” FAZ spokesperson Desmond Katongo said.
“After these consultations with the Government, it has been concluded that the country is not in a position to host the tournament due to the current economic climate.
“FAZ would like to take this opportunity to thank CAF for having shown confidence in the Association and the country at large to host a tournament of this magnitude.”
The withdrawal comes after the successful hosting of the U20 AFCON that Zambia won.
The U23 AFCON is entering its third edition and acts as Africa’s Olympic Football Tournament qualifier.
Meanwhile,CAF has opened bids for an alternative host.
“Zambia formally withdrew from the hosting of the 2019 edition. The committee called for the opening of bids for the selection of a new host country,” CAF said in an official communique.
but bafikala zoona ai
Yaba after asking for it by the president of Zambia himself when he held a meeting with president.
Insoni ba zambia!
carlos – The President was talking about Senior AFCON not the Junior Tournament.
but ba.fikala zoona ai, will one day end up without a nation team palast.
Withdrew from hosting or from bidding? These are two different things
Withdrawn from hosting..we were granted to host ba shibukeni
Sancho mukwai. I asked because withdrawal from hosting usually comes with punitive measures. Like what happened to us when we withdrew as hosts in 1988. We were kicked out of the competition and fined. Withdrawal from bidding is not punishable
But mutati and PF are telling us the economy is up…….what is the truth ??
Since IMF are not giving Can you think about imposing byscle tax for riders , clean air tax for people to breath…..walking tax for anyone who walks ….emmm..emmmm… and shoe tax for anyone who wears shoes.
When Mr lungu and PF embarked on this lawless path we said we will petition the west not to support Mr lungus undemocratic crackdowns ……we were laughed at…..can you now see that petitions work and the West does not want another Mugabe???
Only the Chinese and Indians might give but they too can see that Zambia has maxed out the credit cards as regards to mineral out-put and population expectations…..they know the lungu regime can not rely entirely on dictator tendencies to silence an expectant population.
The burden of the massive debts on the economy aquired by PF will be the deciding factor….
These Chinese and Indians are not du.ll they know they can not take over Zambia demographically like they have done in smaller nations like seascheals and Maldives….they will economically take over but leave just enough money to trickle through for food. They know if they took everything there would be an upraising against them and they would lose everything…..bythis thinking they calculated they have given PF enough.
It has withdrawn because of the current political climate which posses a lot of uncertainty. Even FAZ realized that the political scene is not stable. It might get worse if reconciliation talks by the Bishops prove to be futile.
On the other hand we have an incompetent wako ni wako Minister of Sports and FAZ President. They both have jobs because of RB connection to State House.
If we could successfully host the under-20 tournament why not under-23?Is the government anticipating that there won’t be funds in 2019?
It is not correct to attempt to host such tournaments back-to-back. This was a poor proposition.
Zambia insoni.
We have to rebuild the markets, replace the funds we used to repair the pylons, give marketeer’s start up capital, rebuild govt offices ,palabana university, provide security for ikainde ichelma and repair kabwe hospital. But these Big fools have taken us backwards. They have denied us the opportunity to watch the under 23 live. MAY THEY BE CURSED.
How about considering th short and long term economic benefits of hosting? Wat lessons hv we learnt frm th previous torney we hosted? Did th cost outweigh th benefits? FAZ shud account 4 payments and receipts at th u20 torney n ministry of finance shud update us on th estimated long term benefits frm th previous torney. I hope it’s not th MMD propensity like it rejected th hosting of all africa games. Ask south africa what it has benefited by hosting th WC especialy in th long run.