30/12/2025
TRUE
🇿🇲 AFCON 2025:
WHEN THE JOURNEY ENDS, THE CONVERSATION MUST BEGIN
Zambia is coming home.
Not because we did not try.
Not because the group was impossible.
But because what we are doing, and how we are doing it, is no longer enough.
After three group matches at AFCON 2025, the numbers are cold and unforgiving:
• Played: 3, Won: 0, Drawn: 2, Lost: 1, Goals For: 1, Goals Against: 4 and Points: 2
Bottom of Group A. Journey ended.
And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, this did not end in the last game.
It ended long before the first whistle in Morocco.
THE GROUP: OPPORTUNITY MISSED, NOT STOLEN
Let’s deal with this first , we were not in a group of death.
• Morocco were always favourites.
• Mali drew every game.
• Comoros were disciplined, limited, but organised.
This was a group where four points could have changed everything.
This was a group where one goal here, one brave decision there, could have opened the door.
Instead, we walked softly, cautiously, and sometimes fearfully.
MATCH BY MATCH: THE STORY THEY DON’T WANT US TO TELL
Zambia 1–1 Mali
We celebrated the point. But deep down, we were lucky.
We defended deep, reacted late, and relied on moments rather than structure.
When people spoke, they were told to keep quiet.
But football does not reward silence , it rewards solutions.
Zambia 0–0 Comoros
This was the game. And we blinked. No urgency. No bravery. No risk.
Comoros didn’t beat us , they exposed us.
They pressed. They waited. They locked spaces. And we had no answers.
Zambia vs Morocco
By then, the damage was already done.
You cannot start believing when the house is already on fire.
THE PAINFUL TRUTH: WE HAVE PLAYERS, BUT NO IDENTITY
Let’s be clear , Zambia has talent. But talent without direction is just movement.
We saw:
• Players struggling for confidence
• Others clearly out of form
• Some who should have been rested
• Others who never got a chance
Football is not loyalty. Football is timing and this tournament needed bold timing.
COACHING IS NOT JUST TACTICS , IT IS EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT
This must be said respectfully, but firmly:
A national team coach must protect players from emotional fire, not add fuel to it.
When criticism came, the response became confrontational. Yet criticism is part of leadership , especially at AFCON. You do not fight the fans. You guide them.
Because today, when the team comes home, it is the coach who remains, not the noise.
Am sure Moses Sichone has coached his last as Head Coach, wait a minute, there is a Technical committee that sees these things and i think we are thinking the same!
WE HAVE SEEN ENOUGH
THE BENCH QUESTION: WHAT WERE WE WAITING FOR?
Every tournament reveals something painful:
Sometimes the answers are not in the starting XI, but on the bench. We have seen this story before. We saw it in the last AFCON.
We saw it with players trusted for too long, while others waited until it was too late.
Football punishes hesitation.
THE BIGGER ISSUE: ZAMBIA IS STUCK BETWEEN ERAS
This is the uncomfortable truth.
We are no longer the old Zambia. But we are not yet the new Zambia.
We speak of rebuilding, but:
• Where is the roadmap?
• Where is the defined style?
• Where is the transition plan?
AFCON is not a classroom. It is an exam. And you cannot revise during the test.
WHAT NOW? HARD CONVERSATIONS, NOT EMOTIONAL ONES
Now is not the time for insults and not the time for pretending.
It is time to ask:
• What kind of national team do we want?
• What football identity suits Zambia today?
• How do we manage form, not reputation?
• How do we protect players while demanding standards?
This conversation must involve:
• FAZ leadership
• Technical experts
• Former players
• Honest analysts
• And yes , the fans
Because football belongs to all of us.
THE END OF AFCON 2025, THE START OF TRUTH
Zambia leaves AFCON 2025 without a win. But this should not be the end.
It should be the mirror.
If we avoid it, we will return here again. Same debates, Same pain, Same excuses.
But if we face it , properly ,then maybe this exit will finally mean something.
Mwala wolemera si umene wagwa, koma umene wakana kusunthika.”
A stone is not heavy because it fell, but because it refuses to be moved.
“Munda wosalimidwa, ngakhale mvula igwe bwanji, sudzabala.”
(A field that is not cultivated will not produce, no matter how much rain falls.)
Talent will keep falling on us like rain , but until we cultivate structure, planning, accountability, and honesty, Zambian football will keep harvesting disappointment instead of progress.
AFCON 2025 didn’t expose our players , it exposed our thinking. Until leadership, planning, and long-term vision see this, the results will always tell the same story, just in different tournaments.
The journey has ended, Now the real work must begin.
AFCON is about moments that live forever , GSB helps you experience them fully.
👉 https://lp.gsb.co.zm/bwezani