Southern Africa football news

🚨 CAF Playoff Format for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification! 🌍⚽️

Here’s how Africa’s road to the World Cup will be decided 👇

• The 54 African nations are divided into 9 groups of 6 teams.

• The group winners (9) qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup.

• The four best runners-up across all groups will advance to a centralized CAF play-off tournament.

📊 How the best runners-up are decided:

• When comparing second-placed teams, results against the bottom team in each group (or any withdrawn team) will not count.

• Rankings will then follow the official FIFA tie-break criteria (per Article 11.5 of the regulations).

🏆 Play-off Tournament Format:

• 4 teams, 3 matches, knockout style:

• Semi-finals:
• Match 1: Team 1 vs Team 4
• Match 2: Team 2 vs Team 3
• Final: Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2
• The winner qualifies for the FIFA Intercontinental Play-Off — the final step to the 2026 World Cup.

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Racheal Kundananji in the last four NWSL matches for Bay FC;

v Orlando Pride ⚽
v Gotham ⚽
v Utah Royals ❌
v Portland Thorns ❌
v Seattle Reign 🅰️

Two goals and an assist in the last five league matches.

She has a total of four and four assists this season.

📸 Bay FC

OPERATION SHOOT DOWN THE MENAS IN MOTION: Chipolopolo Sign Off Niger Clash Preps with Intense Session at Levy

The Zambia Senior Men's National Team wound up preparations for Sunday's Group E FIFA World Cup qualifier against Niger with Chipolopolo coach and his technical bench tightening the screws on their game plan.

Coach Avram Grant will be looking to wind up the campaign on a high at home to not just keep their second place hopes running but sustain a winning momentum.

Zambia hosts Niger at 15h00 today (Sunday) at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola with tickets still selling across Shoprite outlets via Computicket.

Tickets are pegged at K50 (North& South), K100 (East), K150 (West) and K300 (VIP).

Here are some selected images as captured by the FAZ Media Team at the final training session.

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WE HAVE TO SHOW THAT WE DESERVE THIS QUALIFICATION-SEKESEKE

Copper Princesses midfielder Masela Sekeseke says the Zambian team will not be going to the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Morocco 2025 as mere participants.

Speaking to the FAZ Media Team at the Reiz Arena, Sekeseke says the Zambian team will show the world that they deserve their world cup ticket.

“It’s okay for other people to consider us as underdogs, but we are not going there to be mere participants but to compete,” she says.
“We worked hard to achieve this qualification and have to show that we deserve it.”

Sekeseke says Zambia will be aiming to better their previous two appearances on the biggest global showpiece.

“We are working extra hard to ensure we clear up all the mistakes we made at the previous edition. We want to adequately perfect everything so we put up a great performance this year,” she says.
“We are in a tough group on paper, yes, but regardless of that, we are going there without fear. We have been encouraging each other to work hard and stay focused.”

The Copper Princesses will this weekend head to Morocco for a pre-tournament camp where they will play some preparatory matches.

The team which is in Group F alongside Paraguay, Japan and New Zealand will set up base in Morocco where they are expected to play some preparatory matches.

Zambia's opening match is on 19 October against Paraguay at the Football Academy Mohammed VI (Pitch 3) in Sale before facing Japan three days later at the same venue.

Their final game will be against New Zealand at the Football Academy Mohammed VI (Pitch 2).

Top two teams in each group will qualify to the knockout stages of the tournament.

CHIPOLOPOLO INTENSIFY AFCON PREPS

The Chipolopolo has hit the ground running ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with 30 players going through the paces at National Heroes Stadium today.

Coach Avram Grant and his technical bench have the benefit of having most players plying their trade abroad already in camp to join their local counterparts.

The team mid-morning session was held under drizzling conditions that did not deter the lads from getting on with their business.
Coach Avram Grant will carry less than 27 players to Saudi Arabia for the international camp that kicks off on January 1.

Only Patson Daka (Leicester City-England), Lameck Banda (Lecce-Italy), Fashion Sakala (Al Fayha-Saudi Arabia), Frankie Musonda (AYR United-Scotland) and Roderick Kabwe (Zakho Sport-Iraq) are not yet part of the squad.

The Confederation of African Football has set January 3 as the deadline for teams to submit their final 23 member squads with the option having four more on standby.

Initially CAF compelled all participating teams to submit provisional lists of up to 55 players by December 14 which Zambia complied with.

During the Saudi Arabia camp Zambia will play Cameroon on January 9 in Jeddah with another match lined up on January 5. The opponent for the January 5 window is yet to be finalized.
Zambia opens its AFCON account on January 17 against Congo DR before facing Tanzania four days later.

The final group match is against Morocco on January 24.
Here are some selected snaps from the team training session at National Heroes Stadium as captured by the FAZ Media Team.

COSAFA WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Zambia 🇿🇲 0-0 🇲🇿 Mozambique

Match Underway

THERE ARE ONLY THREE NATIONS IN AFRICAN WOMEN FOOTBALL THAT HAVE MANAGED TO BEAT WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT NATIONS RANKED IN TOP 5

1. Nigeria 🇳🇬
2. Cameroon 🇨🇲
3. Zambia 🇿🇲

These nations are also the only nations to score more than two goals against the elite nations in two or more matches

Zambia Moves two steps up in the latest Fifa/Caf Rankings 🇿🇲

While Bafana Bafana slip two steps down on Caf/Fifa rankings 🇿🇦

ZAMBIAN TRANSFER UPDATES!!

When the Transfer Window opens Uncle Lucky will be going live everyday after lunch..

FASHION SAKALA ⚽
- French Side Auxere very much interested
- English Premier League side Burnley interested but bid not submitted yet!

PATSON DAKA ⚽
- So many clubs after him
- Brighton And Hove Albion
- WestHam United
- RB Leipzig
- AS Roma
- Udinese
- Napoli (If they sale Osimehn)
- Galatasaray

KINGS KANGWA ⚽
- Nottingham Forest bid submitted already (€3M)
- Losc Lille to enter negotiations
- Montpelier prepared to submit bid
- Celtic aware of the player market

LAMECK BANDA ⚽
- AC Milan was interested and wanted Banda to replace Rafael Leao. But the Portuguese international extended his AC Milan contract so no need for a Lameck Banda move (He will remain at US Leece) No other clubs interested yet

FRANKIE MUSONDA ⚽
- Newly Promoted Premier League side Luton Town interested in the Zambian Defender
- Strausbourg from France to submit their bid too

JOSHUA MUTALE ⚽
- Redbul Salzburg still aware of the Zambian Midfielder! Not yet started negotiations but very interested

EMMANUEL BANDA ⚽
- Not making a move. The Midfielder will remain in Croatia with HNK Rijeka

LUBAMBO MUSONDA ⚽
- Molde and Vitesse interested! No negotiations yet! No bids submitted yet

EDWARD CHILUFYA ⚽
- Still in Denmark with Midtyland. No interests yet from any club

15:00HOURS ⚽ ⚽ ⚽

Zambia Vs Ivory Coast

Zambia’s biggest cup competition final is on today and it will see VAR being used for the first time in the country.

Who is winning the Zambia ABSA Cup final ?

Forest Rangers or FC MUZA?

📸: bolanews.co