FAZ confirms cancellation of Harambee Starlets vs Zambia friendly

Football Association of Zambia has confirmed the cancellation of the planned friendly game between Copper Queens and Harambee Starlets.

Zambia were to face the Kenyan side who are preparing to play in the Tokyo Olympic Games on April 24 in Lusaka.

"Following communication from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) that their team has not been granted the green light to commence football activities by their government, the highly anticipated international friendly match between the Copper Queens and the Harambe Starlets has been cancelled," FAZ announced on Saturday.

FKF cited a presidential order to suspend sports in the country as the reason why they could not honour the friendly invite.

"Reference is made to our request letter for a friendly match as well as the national presidential address made on 26th March 2021 on the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya, which led to the suspension of all sporting activities in the country, including football," FKF's letter as carried out by FAZ read.

"The Kenya FA has since then been engaging the government, through the Ministry of Sports, in a bid to have football allowed to resume so as to enable adequate preparation for our teams scheduled to play in the upcoming Awcon 2022 and World Cup 2022 qualifiers.

"Regrettably, we wish to inform you that we are yet to receive the green light from the government/Ministry of Sports to resume training in preparation for the friendly match and in view of the aforementioned and coupled with the travel restrictions outside the country placed on the national teams by the Ministry of Sports, we wish to request for the cancellation of the planned friendly match.”

FAZ general-secretary Adrian Kashala regretted the cancellation of the game but revealed they have got a backup plan to help the team prepare for their upcoming duties.

“We are disappointed that this game is off, but we have some options on the table especially after the draw for the Olympics is done on April 21," said Kashala.  "The type of opposition we will have in our group will determine the kind of friendly games we will organize for our team.

“The team remains in camp as we look to finalizing the next international assignment. We have attached great value to preparations for Olympics for the girls and hope that they will be battle-ready by July.”

Zambia will represent Africa in the Olympic Games and have played two friendlies against Chile and South Africa. They defeated the South Americans by a margin of 2-1 before they lost to Banyana Banyana by a scoreline of 3-1.