WARRIORS new coach Michael Nees will have a chance to assess the locally-based players under a competitive game environment when the Confédération Africaine de Football (Caf) African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers start next month.
CHAN is a tournament reserved for only locally-based players
Nees, who was appointed two months ago, has been in recent weeks moving across the country to watch local football games to have a look at players that he can draft into the main Warriors squad.
Zimbabwe are set to resume their Africa Cup of Nations qualifications early next month in back-to-back matches against Namibia before facing Kenya and Cameroon in November.
World Cup qualifiers also resume next year.
The German national has said he wants to infuse local players into the main squad currently dominated by foreign-based stars.
He will now have the chance to assess the players after Caf confirmed yesterday that the CHAN Championship qualifiers will kick off next month, while the finals will be held in February next year.
The tournament will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania between February 1 and 28, 2025.
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The qualifiers, beginning with the first round, have been scheduled for the weekend of October 25-27 and November 1-13 this year.
Players that will impress Nees during the first round of the qualifiers could see themselves incorporated into the Warriors squad for the Afcon qualifiers against Kenya and Cameroon later in November.
The CHAN second round of the qualifiers will be played on December 20-22 and December 27-29.
The qualification slots for the tournament have been allocated as follows:
Zones WAFU A, WAFU B, UNAF, UNIFFAC, and COSAFA will each have three qualifying teams.
The CECAFA zone, which includes the three host countries, will receive an additional slot due to their automatic qualification as hosts.
As a result, the total number of teams qualifying for the final tournament will be increased to 19 teams.
Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania will participate in the qualifiers and in addition to their automatic qualification as hosts, the team achieving the best result in the CECAFA qualifiers will also advance to the final tournament.
Nees told this publication this week that he has been impressed with the quality of some of the local players in the games that he has watched.
“I’m going around watching games. Football is of a different kind. It’s not a passing game. It’s more about ball control, dribbling because of the conditions (of the pitches),” Nees said.
“Pressing could be a little bit more active, but the players are skilful, the engagement is there, the effort is there. We have watched some exciting games already and some good matches.”
Zimbabwe are returning to the biennial tournament after missing the last edition in 2022 due to a Fifa suspension.
The Warriors have participated in the tournament five times, and their best performance was a fourth place finish achieved at the 2014 finals in South Africa.
