U17, 20 handball teams disqualified for cheating; association alleges conspiracy to edge out Zambia

Zambia Under -17 and 20 handball teams have been disqualified from the on-going 2023 IHF Zone 6 Women Trophy Games in South Africa for age cheating.

The Handball Association of Zambia (HAZ) has however appealed the decision to the Confederation of African Handball (CAHB) and the International Handball Federation (IHF).

HAZ secretary general, Josab Changa, confirmed the unfortunate development in a press release on Friday.

Changa said the local association was shocked by the two team’s disqualification who had both reached the semi-finals of the tournament, because they had been cleared by the competition supervisors.

He suspected underhand methods aimed at preventing Zambia from reaching the final saying the supervisors had refused to conduct a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to ascertain the players’ ages.

“Immediately both Zambia Under 17 and 20 girls Handball national Teams beat South Africa and Zimbabwe to reach the Semi-finals, they decided to Petition so that to favour them. We had to put our athletes in Camp for more than a month and that’s the more reason why our teams never lost any game and stormed the Semi-finals,” he said.

The tournament had attracted six teams including Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Seychelles and Zambia.

The winners of the tournaments at both age categories will qualify for the Continental Phase of the Women’s IHF Trophy.

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