by Agnes Amondi

Zambia women’s national football team has pulled out of the Turkish Women’s Cup held in Turkey, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) announced on Tuesday.

The cancellation has been ocassioned by the coronavirus pandemic. The Copper Queens players underwent through coronavirus tests and FAZ said the results “put the trip into jeorpady”.

Nonetheless, the federation assured that the Tokyo bound Zambia will go on with its preparations for the summer games, which have also come under scrutiny due to the ongoing global health crisis.

“We have decided to withdraw participation from the Turkish eight-nation Invitational tournament after having had encountered some medical challenges in our preparation for the tournament,” FAZ general secretary Adrian Kashala said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is not an easy decision to make but we always have to prioritize the health of the players and technical staff at all times.”

Part of the reason for this turn of events comes after Zambia’s experience in Chile last December, were 10 players and officials remained isolates for 30 days after they tested positive for COVID-19.

Copper Queens were scheduled to fly out to Turkey this week. They were grouped alongside Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Uzberkistan in the eight national invitational tournament that will be played between February 15 to 24th.