ZIMBABWE’S Warriors have been drawn to face Indian Ocean Islanders, Mauritius in the opening phase of the 2020 Africa Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers.
According to the draw held on Wednesday at the Confederation of African Football (Caf) headquarters in Cairo, the Sunday Chidzambwa coached team will start their campaign in the second round of the qualification phase.
The Warriors will travel to Mauritius for the first leg in Port Louis ahead of the return match in Harare.
CAF revealed that the dates for the qualifiers will be communicated in due course.
Should the Warriors eliminate minnows Mauritius, Chidzambwa’s charges will progress to the next stage of the qualifiers where an arguably trickier assignment against either South Africa or Lesotho lies ahead.
The winning team from that contest will qualify for the fifth edition of the Chan tournament set for Ethiopia.
Zimbabwe will be looking to make a quick return to the CHAN tournament after failing to qualify for the first time in the tournament’s history two years ago.
Prior to being knocked out in the final round of the qualifiers by Namibia in 2017, the Warriors had qualified for every edition of the CHAN tournament since the inaugural tournament in 2009.
CHAN is a biennial football tournament reserved for players featuring in their respective home leagues.
A total of 47 teams have confirmed participating in the qualifiers and have been pooled in six regions with each region producing two or three teams in the finals set for 2020.
Wednesday’s draw was the highlight of the meeting of the 25-member committee, which saw the format and procedure approved.
The format of the competition remains unchanged and will be played on a zonal basis to determine the finalists for Ethiopia.
