THE Zambia national soccer team will next weekend host Zimbabwe in an international friendly to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the 1993 Gabon air disaster that killed 30 Zambia internationals, FAZ officials and plane crew.

FAZ assistant spokesperson Joseph Nkole said yesterday during a Press briefing that the match which was initially scheduled for Wednesday next week had been shifted to Saturday to allow more people to watch it.

Nkole said the match would also be used to kick-start Zambia's preparations for the conjoined 2006 African and World Cup qualifying series which begins with a home game against Togo in June.

"As part of this commemoration, the Zambia soccer team will play a friendly match with Zimbabwe at Independence stadium on Saturday," Nkole said.

He said the team would go into camp on Tuesday for the match whose proceeds would be channeled to the families of the players and officials who perished off the Gabonese coast enroute to Senegal for a World Cup qualifier.

Zambia is in Group One of the 2006 African and World Cup series which also involve Togo, Senegal, Congo, Mali and Liberia.

The Group winners qualify to the German 2006 World Cup while the top three teams in each group make it to the Nations Cup.

Nkole stressed that FAZ had decided to remember the Gabon disaster victims unlike in the past when the solemn ceremony was left in the hands of a few individuals with little input from the association.

Nkole said the committee for the anniversary chaired by FAZ president Teddy Mulonga comprising Sports ministry officials, the Chipolopolo Soccer Fans Association (CSFA), the Church and the media met on Wednesday to put together a comprehensive programme.

He also said on the actual day of the tragedy which falls on April 28, the association was organising a Midlands versus Copperbelt select soccer match.