Zambia Africa Cup of Nations Finalists 2012

Congratulations Zambia, earlier today 8 February 2012 the Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) beat Ghana 1-0 in the semi-final of the Africa Cup of Nations to advance to the final for the third time in their history. Maybe this years tournament will be third time lucky as their two previous final appearances in 1974 and 1994 found them finishing as runners-up. To commemorate their achievement in reaching the final we'll take a look back at the football stamps that Zambia has issued.

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Zambian Football on eBay

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Our previous philatelic post on this years AFCON tournament detailing the first football stamps issued by each of this years participants showed Zambia being a relative late starter in issuing football-themed stamps. It was only in 1980 their first soccer stamp was issued and their haven't been too many issues since. Here's most of them, there's a couple missing from 1998 and 2002, do a google search and if you find a decent image please use the comments to share a link. Cheers.

1980 Moscow Olympics

1984 Los Angeles Olympics

1986 Mexico World Cup First Day Cover

1988 Seoul Olympic Games

1990 Italy World Cup

2002 Korea Japan World Cup

2008 Beijing Olympics

2010 South Africa World Cup

2010 South Africa World First Day Cover

So there we are the football stamps of Zambia. The last two are pretty interesting in that nine countries who are members of the South African Postal Operators Association produced a joint issue to commemorate the first World Cup to be held in Africa. More about that here.

To finish I'll leave you with a rather excellent tidbit of Zambian togga trivia. Did you know that English football legend Bobby Charlton made his last ever appearance as a player against Zambia? But who was it for? Find out here Bobby Charlton v Zambia. 

If you've liked this post then please do give it a tweet, a facebook like or Google +1. Use the buttons below. Cheers folks. Stay tuned for the next post in which we'll have a butchers at the stamps issued by Zambia's opponents in the final - the Elephants of the Ivory Coast.