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Zifa plan Warriors camp

Sport
WARRIORS coach Kalisto Pasuwa met with the Zifa management yesterday to discuss preparations for the African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament to be held in Rwanda next January.

WARRIORS coach Kalisto Pasuwa met with the Zifa management yesterday to discuss preparations for the African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament to be held in Rwanda next January.

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

The Warriors gaffer has called for early preparations for the tournament, suggesting December 7 as the latest date he wants his charges to go into camp.

Kalisto-Pasuwa

With the Zifa elections set for December 5, the new leadership will have to immediately take on the challenge of preparing the team for the biennial soccer tournament.

Pasuwa met with the Zifa management yesterday and discussed camping issues as well as other logistics ahead of the tournament.

Zifa spokesperson, Xolisani Gwesela said they had preliminary discussions with the coach on preparations for the Chan tournament.

“Obviously, as Zifa, we would want to have early preparations for the Chan tournament. So we met with the coach for preliminary discussions on the preparations. The actual date for camping has not been set. We will have another meeting tomorrow (today) and will have all the details about camping date after that meeting,” he said.

Zimbabwe were drawn in a tough Group D that includes neighbours Zambia, Mali and Uganda.

A total of 16 teams were drawn in four groups, with Zimbabwe one of the seeded teams.

Pasuwa, who was part of the technical team that qualified to the semi-finals of the last edition of the tournament held in South Africa, maintains they need to be well prepared for such tournaments.

“We have not done enough in terms of preparations of late, but we have been getting away with it. It’s dangerous. One day, it will catch up with us if we do not take preparations seriously,” he said.

The Warriors have qualified for every edition of the Chan tournament since its inauguration in 2009.

They also appeared in 2011 and 2014, where they reached the semi-finals, their first time to advance to the last four.

The Warriors qualified for the tournament, after overcoming Lesotho 4-2 on aggregate.

The tournament, which is designed exclusively for the locally-based players, gets underway from January 16 to February 7, 2016.

Group A fixtures will take place at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Group B in Butare, Group C at the Nyamirambo Stadium, also in Kigali, while Gisenyi will host Group D.

Libya were crowned Chan winners in the last edition, but will not be able to defend their title after failing to qualify for the latest edition.