Times Of Swaziland: COSAFA BUMPER YEAR OF TOURNEYS

COSAFA BUMPER YEAR OF TOURNEYS
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Machawe Fakudze on 13/04/2022 08:38:00


MBABANE – The Council of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) has
released a busy schedule for activities to be done this year.
The mother body of Southern Africa has planned seven tournaments, including an
exciting new edition to the regional football calendar which showcases the
development initiatives of the organisation. The 2022 COSAFA Cup which is the
organisation’s flagship tournament will be staged a few weeks after the
completion of the opening round of the 2023 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations
qualifiers. The tournament returns to Durban for the first time since 2019, as
it was staged in Nelson Mandela Bay in the previous editions. It will be staged
from July 5-17, 2022.
Women
The men’s tournament will be followed by the second installment of the
TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League/COSAFA Qualifiers, which is also
slated for the same venue, starting from August 4-14, 2022. Eswatini was
represented by Manzini Wanderers ladies team in the inaugural event, which was
won by South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns ladies team. The South African team
went on to claim the continental crown as well. COSAFA went on to announce that
this event would be followed by the COSAFA Women’s Championship, which will be
staged from August 31 to September 11, 2022.
The COSAFA Men’s Under-20 Championship to be hosted by the country is
scheduled to be staged from October 6-16, 2022. This tournament was supposed to
be held in the country in December last year but had to be postponed on the
eleventh hour due to travel restrictions in some countries, as COVID-19 cases
surged after a new variant was discovered in South Africa.