adminNgqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE Confederation of African Football has made amendments to the qualifying format for the Under-17 Cup of Nations qualifiers which will now be played on a zonal basis.
Two countries from each of Caf’s four zones will make it to the finals of the tourney. The changes were made at a Caf Football Symposium in Rabat, Morocco.
The meeting was attended by 400 other international football experts while locally, Zifa president, Philip Chiyangwa travelled with Zifa chief executive officer, Joseph Mamutse and technical director Wilson Mutekede.
Mutekede said the changes have a significant impact as it will reduce the travelling costs for teams making it easy for them to attend.
Mutekede said this will impact positively on local junior development as the country would be able to have a team taking part in the competition.
“As a country it is folly that we should only subject our senior national side to continental and international competitions while neglecting the youth sides.
“Development has to start at the bottom, allowing us to track players from a tender age and monitor their progression to the top,” he said.
The biennial tourney (previously known as the African Under-17 Championship) has been held since 1995 while between 1985 and 1993 only qualifying competitions had been played for the Fifa Under-17 World Cup.
Gabon played host to this year’s competition, which was the 12th edition of the tourney and was won by Mali.
The competition is also used as qualifiers for the Fifa U-17 World Cup with the top four teams heading for the international event.
This year’s finals will be held in India between 6 and 28 October and from Africa, Mali will be joined by Niger, Ghana and Guinea.
Zimbabwe has struggled to send junior national teams to continental events due to financial constraints but the Young Warriors featured in the Cosafa Under-17 Championships held in Mauritius last month but performed dismally.
Football legend, Moses Chunga who was appointed head coach of the Under-17 national team emphasised on the need to focus on development rather than seeking to win competitions.
Online Reporter