The Federation of Zambia Association (FAZ) President Andrew Kamanga has called on the country to have believe something great will happen despite their early exit from the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.

The Copper Queens, who were making their debut in the tournament, failed to go past their Group C after losing their two opening matches – 5-0 against Japan and 5-0 against Spain. Though they defeated Costa Rica 3-1 in their final match, it was not enough to hand them a Round of 16 place.

“As everyone already knows, the Copper Queens’ journey at the 2023 FIFA World Cup came to an end last week on Monday after beating Costa Rica 3-1 for the team to at least bow out on a high,” said Kamanga as quoted by FAZ media, adding: “We have spent the last few days reviewing the tournament and will not do as much this week. However, it would be unfair not to give a few insights here as we wind down this subject.

Read Also: FIFAWWC: Why Zambia’s Chanda and Nali will remain in New Zealand

“It is very easy to forget that the Copper Queens were making their debut at the FIFA World Cup and became the first senior Zambia National Team to qualify for the world cup. For debutants, it would not be very disappointing if your scorecard reads like two losses and a victory. The two losses came against tournament heavies Spain and Japan who are light years ahead of Zambia.

“We can only build from this point onwards. Having qualified for two Women’s Africa Cup of Nations consecutively and represented Africa at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games before the monumental qualification to the world cup we can have a reason to believe something great is happening in our game. We do not discount the fact that there are a lot of things we could have done better to make our campaign smoother.”

He concluded: “All these things will be addressed internally and externally with other stakeholders to ensure that we continuously improve. The Copper Queens can now look to reboot and focus on the WAFCON and Olympic qualifiers ahead. We believe the next few months will launch a new phase in the journey and composition of the Copper Queens.”