The Sunday News
THE Zimbabwe Warriors will know their group stage opponents at the 2016 Orange African Nations Championships finals this evening when the draw is conducted in Kigali, Rwanda the hosts of the tournament.
According to Confederation of African Football, the official draw for the finals will take place this evening (6pm) at the Kigali Serena Hotel.
Zimbabwe qualified for the tournament following their 4-2 victory Lesotho in a two-legged qualifier, enabling the Warriors to make a fourth straight qualification for the event, that is reserved for players plying their trade in their local leagues.
The other teams that have qualified for the fourth edition of the Chan finals and will go into the pot with Zimbabwe include hosts Rwanda, 16 qualified teams are, (in alphabetical order): Angola, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Tunisia and Zambia.
Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze said they would be keenly watching the draw as they intend to start preparations for the tournament that is only two months away as it is set to kick off on 16 January. Mashingaidze said they were also finalising preparatory plans for the tourney.
The tourney, which is the 4th edition will run from 16 January to 7 February in three cities namely Gisenyi, Butare and Kigali. Last year the biennial tournament was staged in South Africa and was won by Libya who, however, failed to qualify for next year’s edition. Zimbabwe finished fourth after losing out to Libya in the semi-finals.
DR Congo and Zimbabwe are the only two countries that have managed to keep a 100 percent qualifying record for the tournament.
