The Football Association has awarded scholarships to the U-17 boys who emerged victorious at the just-ended COSAFA Cup in Malawi to aid their learning process.

FAZ president Andrew Kamanga says the association will henceforth offer scholarahips to juniour teams and that offer has since been extended to the girls’ team that came third at the Cosafa tournament in Mauritius.

He said the Technical Directorate would work out the details of the scholarships for the title winning young champions.

“As an executive, our position is very clear. As you may know, these are young school going children. I am sure we do not want to hear about winning bonuses because they are
classified as development teams. As an executive, we are taking a slightly different approach. This time around, we are going to offer scholarships to all the under-17 boys and girls teams so that as they develop their football careers, they can also be supported with education which is a life skill,” said Kamanga. “On behalf of the executive, we just wanted to announce that going forward, for all the junior teams, we will be supporting them with football scholarships through the office of the Technical Director.”

This is the first time that the association is awarding scholarships to the junior teams.

The U-17 team that won the COSAFA has since been commended by various enthusiasts, including President Edgar Lungu.

The National Sports Council of Zambia described the victory as an independence gift for the country.

10-man Zambia beat Mozambique by two goals to nil in the 2019 COSAFA cup final played on Sunday in Blantyre, Malawi.