 Logo since 2019 | |
| Organising body | FAZ |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Region | Zambia |
| Number of teams | 8 teams (6 from Super League and 2 from National Division One) |
| Current champions | ZESCO United F.C. [1] |
| Most successful team(s) | ZESCO United F.C (6 titles) |
| Television broadcasters | SuperSport |
 2024 ABSA Cup | |
The ABSA Cup, formerly the Barclays Cup, is the current branding for an association football cup competition launched in 2007 by the Football Association of Zambia. [2] [3] [4]
Contents
Participants are decided half-way through current season (match day 17) [5] and are picked from the two highest divisions in Zambia. Since the inaugural season of National Division One in the 2019–20 season, 2 teams are picked from that division and 6 are from the Super League to enter the competition each year. [6]
Following the full acquisition of the assets and operations of Barclays in Africa, [7] including Zambia, [8] by South Africa-based ABSA (now Absa Group Limited) in 2018, the competition's next edition in 2019 was rebranded as the Absa Cup. [9]
The video assistant referee (VAR) was introduced to the competition and implemented on a pilot basis at the final of the 2023 edition, [10] [11] a first in Zambian football and Sub-Saharan African football as a whole. Thus, this put Zambia on the list as the 3rd African country after Morocco and Egypt to introduce and implement VAR in domestic football matches. [12] Head of referees at FAZ, Aziph Banda, cited the inadequacy of FIFA-certified referees to operate the VAR, with female referee Diana Chikotesha being the only exception having previously experienced its usage at the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations and Janny Sikazwe having retired as the reason why the association appointed foreign referees solely for that final. [13]
