NEW FORMAT, DATES FOR COSAFA CUP

MBABANE – The dates have been set for this year’s Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup.

This comes after COSAFA has cleared the air on the uncertainty of this year’s competitions hosted in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). The tournaments are also the flagship men’s, women’s and the TotalEnergies Women’s Champions League/COSAFA Qualifiers. The South African Football Association (SAFA) was of the view that such tournaments were a drain in the economy of that country. The two football bodies met and they reached an agreement on the hosting of the tournament this year and in future.

COSAFA, through its Media Manager Lynda Greeff, released a statement confirming the dates for the 2023 COSAFA Cup, which will be played in an exciting new format when it is staged in the South African coastal city of Durban from July 5-16. According to the statement, the new format will see 12 teams taking part and they will be split into three groups of four sides, with the three pool winners and the best runners-up advancing to the last four. Host South Africa, last edition winners Zambia and runners-up Namibia will be seeded in the three pools.

Draw

This year’s edition draw will be conducted directly after COSAFA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) billed for Johannesburg on Friday, May 26, 2023. The group games will be played from July 5 to 12, with the semi-finals scheduled for July 14 and the finals and third-place play-offs to be staged at the King Zwelithini Stadium two days later. It is worth noting that there will be no Plate competition this year; this means that it is a ‘goodbye’ for the previous format in which there were two groups of four teams and another six sides entering in the quarter-finals. The new format will see each team playing a minimum of three games.

Meanwhile, the 21 previous editions have seen only five nations lifting the coveted trophy, with Zimbabwe and Zambia having won it six times. South Africa won it five times; Angola claimed it three on three occasions, with Namibia taking it home once. Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and Lesotho reached the finals, but ended up losing it. Senegal is the first guest nation to reach the finals and it was in the 2021 edition. On the other hand, the all-time leading goalscorer of the regional tournament is Eswatini’s attacking midfielder Felix ‘Fela’ Badenhorst. The Mbabane Swallows player has scored nine goals in the tournament.

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