#chipolopolo

nine african teams at this world cup. the most ever. morocco, nigeria, senegal, egypt, south africa, ivory coast, mali, cameroon, and one more. i've been watching some of these games and there's a different feeling to african football at this tournament than there was even a decade ago. these teams aren't just there to make up the numbers anymore. morocco reached the semi-finals in 2022 - the first african team ever to do that. that changed something. you can feel it in how these teams are playing now - less fear, more belief.

and i won't pretend it doesn't sting a little, watching from outside. we came so close in qualifying. one result away from a playoff. i wrote about that a few days ago - the gap isn't talent, it's consistency, it's the ability to win the matches you're supposed to win, at home, when it matters most.

but here's what i keep coming back to. watching these african teams compete at this level - watching the confidence, the tactical maturity, the sense that they belong on this stage - it tells me something about what's possible for us too. zambia beat morocco in qualifying not that long ago. we're not far from these teams in quality. we're a result or two away, year after year, from being where they are.

i think about kalusha and the 1988 olympics, when we beat italy 4-0 and the world took notice. i think about 2012, when we won the AFCON in the same city where we'd lost so much in 1993. we've had our moments on the world stage. what we haven't had is the world cup moment - the one that morocco had in 2022, the one that changes how a country sees itself and how the world sees that country.

nine african teams at this world cup. i want us to be the tenth, next time. not as a dream - as a plan. the infrastructure, the consistency, the depth in the squad that doesn't depend on one or two players having a good day. that's what separates "we learned a lot" from "we qualified."

today is june 11, 2026. the FIFA world cup begins.

mexico and south africa kick off the largest world cup in history at the estadio azteca — 48 teams, 16 cities across the united states, mexico, and canada, running until the final at metlife stadium in new jersey on july 19.

and zambia is watching.

the chipolopolo have never qualified for a FIFA world cup. in 62 years of trying — the team that won the africa cup of nations in 2012, that beat italy 4-0 at the 1988 olympics, that lost 18 players in a plane crash off gabon in 1993 and came back to libreville nineteen years later to win the trophy — has never played in a world cup. not once.

the 2026 qualification campaign ended on a particularly painful note. group E: morocco, niger, tanzania, congo, zambia. morocco qualified as group winners. the second spot — a playoff berth — came down to the final match day. zambia needed to beat niger at home at levy mwanawasa stadium in ndola. they lost 1-0. niger finished second. zambia finished fourth.

coach avram grant said afterwards: "we learned a lot from these qualification games. i think zambia is a good team." the words of a man who knows that learning and qualifying are two different things.

today, africa sends nine qualified teams to the most expanded world cup in history. morocco. nigeria. senegal. egypt. south africa. ivory coast. mali. cameroon. zambia is not among them.

the quality gap is not enormous. the 2026 campaign showed that — zambia gave morocco a tough match, beat congo, came within a single result of the playoff berth. the gap is not a talent gap. it is a consistency gap. the ability to win the matches that must be won, at home, against opponents who can be beaten. niger beat zambia in ndola. that is the gap.

the world is watching the 2026 world cup today. zambia is watching too. for the team. for the day that hasn't come yet. for libreville. 🇿🇲⚽

to understand libreville 2012, you have to understand libreville 1993.

the zambian national football team was on a zambian air force BAe 748 from lusaka to dakar for a world cup qualifier. it stopped in brazzaville — engine issues noticed — then landed in libreville, gabon to refuel. while climbing out after refuelling, the left engine caught fire. the pilot allegedly shut down the right engine in error. the aircraft plunged into the atlantic ocean just off the gabon coast. all 30 people on board died: 18 zambian footballers, 5 support staff, and the crew. the best zambia had. players who had defeated italy 4-0 at the 1988 seoul olympics. still remembered. still felt.

zambia rebuilt. a generation passed.

then came 2012. a zambian team nobody expected, coached by a french coach named hervé renard, arrived in equatorial guinea and gabon for the africa cup of nations. chipolopolo topped their group ahead of hosts equatorial guinea, libya, and heavily favoured senegal. they won their quarter-final. they won their semi-final against ghana. and then they were in the final. in libreville. in gabon. in the city where their predecessors had died.

coach renard had told his players: if we get to the final, we will play in gabon, where the plane crashed. there was special significance in that.

the final. ivory coast — drogba, yaya toure, gervinho — against zambia. 120 minutes. 0-0. drogba missed a penalty in normal time. the shootout: 8-7 to zambia. gervinho fired over the bar. stophira sunzu converted the final spot-kick and ran to the fans who were chanting chipolopolo — not just zambian fans. the gabonese crowd had adopted the zambians. the city that had swallowed their predecessors was cheering for them.

christopher katongo lifted the trophy. hervé renard was hoisted aloft by his players, crying.

one of the greatest stories in the history of african football. the greatest moment in the history of zambian sport.

the zambian sports series begins. 🇿🇲⚽

the honest analysis first.

the 2026 FIFA world cup qualifying campaign is over. chipolopolo finished fourth in CAF group E — morocco 21 points, niger 15, tanzania 10, zambia 9. the world cup in the USA, canada, and mexico will proceed without zambia's men's team.

this is painful. but the series of events that led here deserves honest telling rather than convenient excuse.

morocco were always going to be out of reach — they won every single qualifying game. but niger finishing second above zambia? tanzania ahead of zambia? these are results the zambian football family needs to sit with seriously. organisation, consistency, fitness, tactical discipline across a full campaign — these are the variables that separate a group winner from a fourth-place finisher. they are variables that FAZ and the coaching structure around chipolopolo need to address with the seriousness the moment demands.

there is talent in this squad. patson daka. lameck banda. fashion sakala — whose sucker-punch strike against tanzania in zanzibar showed exactly the quality zambia has in its attacking players. these are players competing in european football at a high level. the question is whether the system around them converts individual quality into consistent team performance.

based on this campaign: not yet.

now — the humorous portion. because we owe ourselves that.

every zambian football fan has a theory about what went wrong.

your uncle on the phone at half time with a complete tactical breakdown that changes every fifteen minutes. the man at the braai who was absolutely certain the goalkeeper was the problem — until the goalkeeper made a good save, at which point the problem became the defensive midfield. the predictions made with complete confidence before every match, and the creativity with which they were revised immediately after.

this is the sacred community of zambian football fandom. we argue. we disagree. we criticise. we celebrate. we blame the referee. we celebrate fashion sakala scoring as if we personally trained him. we suffer together when niger scores in the 56th minute at levy mwanawasa. this is what it means to follow chipolopolo.

and now — the genuinely good news.

barbra banda.

if you have not been following barbra banda's season at orlando pride in the NWSL, you need to start. she returned from injury at the start of 2026 and was named NWSL team of the month for march — three goals in her first three games back. this is a woman who scored the 1,000th goal in women's world cup history. who beat germany — ranked second in the world — with hat tricks at two consecutive olympic games. who was named african women's footballer of the year, BBC women's footballer of the year, and FIFPRO women's world XI in 2024. who led orlando pride to the NWSL championship and was named its most valuable player.

born in lusaka. started playing football on the streets because the academy she attended did not have a girls team. sometimes threw her boots out the window at night so her parents would not know she was sneaking out to train.

barbra banda is one of the greatest footballers that africa has ever produced. not a compliment reserved for african women. a statement about african football, full stop.

the copper queens are building toward the women's africa cup of nations in morocco where the top four qualify for the women's world cup in brazil. barbra told the press what it will take: building the team well, unity, continued support from the fans.

the same things it always takes.

the story of zambian football in 2026 has two chapters. chapter one is chipolopolo's world cup disappointment — real, painful, requiring honest reflection and structural investment. chapter two is the copper queens and barbra banda — a source of genuine pride, global recognition, and the reminder that zambia produces world-class footballers, full stop.

both chapters matter. both deserve the country's attention.

chipolopolo will be back. the copper bullets will do what the copper mines have always done — produce, through every difficult season, until the moment comes.

In February 2012, the Zambian national football team flew to Libreville, Gabon, to play in the Africa cup of nations final.

this is already remarkable. but here is the detail that changes the entire story:

in april 1993, eighteen members of the zambian national team died when their plane crashed into the atlantic ocean near libreville, gabon.

the same country. the same coastline. nineteen years later.

and they went back. and they won.

i don't know how to write about this without feeling the weight of it. the sheer improbability of it. the way history sometimes arranges itself into something that feels less like coincidence and more like completion.

the 2012 squad was not a team of superstars. they had no drogba. no toure. no player whose name would have been immediately recognisable to a casual european football fan. what they had was each other and a country behind them and — i believe this, even though it cannot be measured — something that felt like obligation. like the nineteen had come this far and deserved to see it finished.

they beat ivory coast on penalties in the final.

and somewhere over the atlantic, i like to think, something was settled.

zambian football is not always pretty. the domestic league is underfunded and the infrastructure is what it is and we have had our share of disappointments on the continental stage since 2012.

but none of that changes what happened in libreville.

none of that changes the fact that a group of zambian men, carrying the names of the dead on their backs, went to the place where their predecessors fell.

and came home champions.

There were no goals, and not much action, as Zambia drew with Comoros