The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) says while it is disappointed with the first-round exit of the Copper Queens from the ongoing WAFCON, they will quickly reboot and focus on the next assignments.
FAZ President Keith Mweemba says the exit was particularly painful after the team scored the highest number of goals in the group and conceded fewest.
“We have to salute our girls and the technical bench for giving their best at the tournament despite exiting in the first round. It was a separation anchored on peculiar circumstances that unfortunately we have to accept as part of the rules of the game,” he said.
“There is no debating about the rules but we could have hoped for a better way to conclude the tightly contested group which was virtually the group of death.”
Mweemba says the team should now focus on the forthcoming Olympic qualifiers which start in October. “We now have to focus on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games qualifiers which we start in October with back-to-back games against Uganda in the first of five knock out rounds,” he added.
Mweemba says FAZ will conduct a postmortem of the tournament in due course and make necessary adjustments. “We will be doing a thorough postmortem of the tournament and ensure that we take lessons going forward.”
He has thanked Zambians for their support to the team and FAZ during the tournament. “We wish to thank the Zambian people for their massive support during the tournament which kept the team motivated to achieve more.
We also wish to thank government and Konkola Copper Mines for their support towards the team’s participation and pledge to honour this support with Olympic qualification,” said Mweemba.
Zambia exited the tournament after winning two games and losing one to miss out narrowly on qualification to the quarterfinals. The 2026 WAFCON is a qualifier for the Brazil 2027 FIFA World Cup with the semifinalists grabbing tickets to the biggest football event in the women’s game.
