VARs for CHAN 2018, ZESCO win Zambia league and more [Football Planet]

In this episode of the Football Planet…

We’ll tell you about the last day of Zambia’s premier soccer league which was biting as it had four teams in line to win the title on the final matchday but Zesco managed to edge 2016 winners Zanaco for the league victory on a total of 74 points.

****

Some national teams are pleased with their lot after Friday’s 2018 WC draw. Others not so much. We’ve gathered the reactions of supporters and coaches of some of the African teams heading to Russia.

****

Mauritanian football is on the comeback trail. The country’s football federation is preparing to host an awards gala to reward the best of the best last season. The gala will also have big names like Didier Drogba and the CAF president in attendance. We spoke to federation spokesperson Brahima Sow Deyan from Nouakchott.

****

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will grant a financial subsidy of $500,000 to each of the five African teams heading to the Russia 2018 World Cup.

The financial package will be used mainly to strengthen and improve the technical supervision of each team.

****

With barely a month to the African Nations Championship (CHAN) Morocco 2018, referees have launched preparations for a place at the final tournament.

Forty-four (44) referees and assistant referees were in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for a five-day training programme between Nov.27 and Dec. 1 to select the match officials for the final tournament to be hosted in the Moroccan cities of Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangiers and Agadir.

One of the other topics of interest is the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to be experimented for the first time on the continent during the CHAN.

****

The race for African Player of the Year and Player of the Year (Based in Africa) is gradually gathering momentum with the announcement of the shortlisted players for the two categories.

The initial 30-man list was whittled down to 11 and 10 players who made the cut for the Player of the Year and the Player of the Year (Based in Africa) respectively.

Follow @Muisyo_