Fredrick Chitangala and Alfred Foloko laid wreaths at Heroes' Acre ©NCOZ

National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NCOZ) President Alfred Foloko has visited the Heroes' Acre burial site to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the plane crash which killed the country's national football team and technical staff.

Twenty-five passengers and five crew died when the aircraft carrying Zambia's team to a match in Senegal crashed off the coast of Gabon in 1993.

The players were buried near Independence Stadium in Zambia's capital Lusaka.

Foloko was accompanied by Olympic Youth Development Centre Zambia chief executive Fredrick Chitangala and Teqball Zambia international relations director Shukri Eljaiedi.

They laid wreaths as Foloko said that sports federations in the country should unite in the memory of those lost.

Foloko added: "The fallen heroes paid a price for our country with their lives, so any sports administrator today should ask themselves if what they are fighting for is necessary."

Zambia's 2012 African champions dedicated their triumph to the victims of the 1993 plane crash ©Getty Images
Zambia's 2012 African champions dedicated their triumph to the victims of the 1993 plane crash ©Getty Images

The NCOZ President also advised those contesting executive positions in Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) elections to ensure that the organisation's constitution is respected.

Zambia's two all-time leading scorers, Godfrey Chitalu and Alex Choba, were among the victims of the crash as both were part of the coaching team.

The team had been travelling to play a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Senegal.

Zambia's makeshift side assembled after the disaster ultimately missed out on reaching the World Cup by one point, but did reach the Africa Cup of Nations final in 1994, losing to Nigeria.

In 2012 in Libreville, not far from the site of the disaster, Zambia won the Africa Cup of Nations after defeating the Ivory Coast on penalties in the final.