Defending Champions of the Absa Cup Zesco United have been drawn against tricky neighbours Forest Rangers in this seasons club competition as competition gets richer with the winners set to walk away with K600,000.
The country’s top club cup competition gets underway this month with the draws for the first round (Quarter-final) done on Tuesday morning.
The draw for 2020 ABSA Cup has been done this morning at a ceremony held at Southern Sun Hotel in Lusaka with a number of interesting duels on the cards at the Quarter-final stage.
Zesco United are the defending and record champions of the competition formerly called the Barclays Cup, having beaten Zanaco 4-1 in the final last season of the inaugural rebranded edition to lift the cup for the fifth time.
The Ndola giants who are also the league holders, will now be aiming to defend the cup this season but face a daunting task ahead as they have been paired against resurgent neighbours in Forest Rangers who have been on a fairytale run this season and are surprisingly on top the league standings.
Record Zambian champions Nkana FC come up against National Division One outfit and traditional town-rivals Kitwe United while 2012 competition winners Napsa Stars battle it out with Kabwe Warriors.
Green Eagles have in front of them National Division One leaders and promotion chasers Young Green Eagles, their very own sister club to deal with to have a chance at making it through to the lucrative last four stage.
The sponsors Absa, have pumped in K1.1m (US$71, 500) for this year’s edition with the winners pocketing K600, 000 (US$40,000) which is an K100,000 improvement from last season’s prize money.
The competitions’ runners-up will settle for K250, 000 while the most outstanding player and coach will take home K20, 000 each while a man of the match performance is worth K10, 000.
Meanwhile, the story tellers have also not being left out as Absa has allocated K200, 000 for media awards.
Additionally, all the participating teams will get K12, 000 in travel grants for each game also courtesy of Absa.
The competition’s Quarter-finals are set to be played on March 21st and 22nd at the Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
