The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) draw was held on Monday night.
With Zimbabwe in the mix this time around, local football fans were monitoring proceedings on TV and social media.
It served up a very tough group for The Warriors, mainly as a consequence of their low ranking.
The Warriors were in Pot 4 and picked Egypt from Pot 1, South Africa from 2 and Angola from three.
It is pleasing to note that The Warriors coach Michael Nees is still confident that his team can make history and be the first one to go beyond the group stages.
“We need to be up to the challenge straight from the beginning, but with good preparations we can meet the challenge. As any other team, we want to go to the second round. We respect our opponents, but we have all self-belief in our own strength and skills to achieve this objective. The tournament will set new standards for Afcon, I am sure and the conditions and facilities will be quite fair and equal for all the teams,” Nees said.
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Speaking to local media for the first time after he got the job, Nees said his mission was to take Zimbabwe to the next level.
It is good to note that despite the tough group which contains record Afcon winners Egypt, who will arrive with their galaxy of stars playing for top teams in Europe, South Africa, who won it twice and Angola who reached the last eight in the last edition, Nees has stuck to his guns.
He believes Zimbabwe has a fair chance to achieve their objective.
Now the ball is in Zifa's court to make sure it utilises all the Fifa windows to get some action.
The Afcon 2025 finals are not far away. Preparations need to start now.
It will be Zimbabwe’s sixth qualification for Afcon. However, the team has failed to qualify for the knockout stages in previous five editions.
Preparations will be key if the team is to succeed.
There is a boost in the team’s Afcon aspirations in that the 2026 World Cup qualifiers will give The Warriors a platform to prepare as there are six rounds of matches to be played during the course of this year.
New Zifa president Nqobile Magwizi promised to hit the ground running in preparing The Warriors for Afcon.
Gone are the days when Zimbabwe would qualify for a tournament to make the numbers.
If Zambia can win Afcon, what stops Zimbabwe. There is a need for adequate preparations. For Zifa to attain that it needs more partners to walk with it.
Magwizi said on Saturday that a number of corporates had promised to walk with Zifa as it charts a new path. He promised to facilitate an all-stakeholder meeting to chart a new course for Zimbabwean football. This is the tonic football needs after a bruising election. After all, Zimbabwean football must be the winner.