AFCON
Ex-Chelsea boss, Avram Grant, named Zambia coach
Zambia have appointed former Chelsea, West Ham and Ghana manager Avram Grant to take charge of their national team.
The Israeli has agreed a two-year contract, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) announced on Thursday.
“I was looking for the right challenge and that’s why I chose Zambia,” Grant said at a press conference in Lusaka.
“I came here because of the challenge and I hope when I leave here, I will look around and say we did a good job and made a good foundation for the future.
“I think Zambia has the potential; we have set the targets of what we want to achieve.”
Grant has previous experience managing in Africa, having led Ghana to the final at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, where they were beaten on penalties by Ivory Coast, but resigned after finishing fourth in the same competition two years later.
The 67-year-old, who has won honours as a manager in his home country, as well as in England and Serbia, replaces former Zambia international Moses Sichone who had been acting as caretaker following the departure of former Croatia international Aljosa Asanovic in September. Sichone is expected to retain his position as assistant coach.
Grant will be tasked with reviving the ailing fortunes of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations winners.
The Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) failed to qualify for this year’s tournament in Cameroon and finished third in their qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup.
However, Zambia have several talented young players, including Rangers forward Fashion Sakala and Leicester City striker Patson Daka, who won the Under-20 Nations Cup in 2017 and reached the quarter-finals of the U20 World Cup the same year.
Grant’s first game in charge will be at home to Lesotho in March, a qualifier for the 2023 Cup of Nations being held in Cote d’Ivoire.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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