Namibia withdraws from CHAN focuses on AFCON, COSAFA

The Namibia Football Association has withdrawn the Brave Warriors from the African Nations Championship (CHAN) due to financial constraints.

The Normalisation Committee said they will instead focus on Afcon 2023 and Cosafa 2022 competitions.

The Brave Warriors are currently in Johannesburg, to honour their Afcon 2023 obligations, with the first qualifier scheduled against Burundi on 4 June 2022.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Warriors have been named as one of the 12 countries from the COSAFA region that will play in the qualifiers for the 2022 African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament.

This is despite the fact that Zimbabwe is suspended from international football by FIFA.

Three teams from the COSAFA region will qualify for the finals to be held in Algeria in January next year.

Zimbabwe was on Thursday paired with Malawi in the first round of the 2022 CHAN qualifiers.

All qualifying ties are set to be played over two legs, with the winners on aggregate progressing.

First-round first leg matches will be played between 22 and 24 July with the return legs a week later.

Only locally-based players are eligible to participate in the CHAN tournament.

However, Zimbabwe’s participation in the CHAN tournament is by no means guaranteed as they will be disqualified if the FIFA ban is not lifted two weeks from the kick-off of the CHAN game.

The Herald/ New Era Newspaper