Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) has released the 2020 football calendar lining up a number of tournaments this year.
This was approved during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday.
To kick-start a package full of potential exciting tournaments will be the under-17 women’s football tournament to be staged in Port Louis, Mauritius in April followed by the senior men’s championship in Durban, South Africa, from June 13 to 27.
Next on the menu will be the men’s under 17 tournament slated for Blantyre, Malawi between July 22 and August 1. Malawi will host the competition for the second successive year.
For the third consecutive year, Port Elizabeth will host the women’s senior championship from September 11 to 23 followed by women’s under-20 championship in Maseru, Lesotho from December 3-12.
The men’s under-20 will also be held in Mauritius.
“There is also hope that a women’s under 17 beach soccer tournament can be held in Seychelles from October 19 to 25 but this is dependent on sponsorship. There is also a possibility of a men’s Futsal competition at a venue and date yet to be determined,” the statement from Cosafa reads.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) General Secretary, Alfred Gunda who reportedly attended the meeting in South Africa, was yet to respond as we went to press yesterday.
It is unclear on how many Cosafa tournaments Malawi will take part in this year.
Last year, Malawi participated in four of the six competitions but failed to win any silverware. Malawi was withdrawn from the Under-20 Cosafa championship after a late confirmation last year.
The men’s senior team crashed out of the Cosafa Cup in the quarter final stage after losing 4-2 on post-match penalties to Zambia to be relegated to Cosafa Plate where they lost to South Africa 5-4 on post-match penalties.
The women’s team also failed to go past the group stages after winning two games (beat Madagascar 2-0 and Comoros Islands 13-0) but lost 3-1 to winners South Africa whereas the under-20 also exited at the same stage in Zambia. Under-17 also crashed out of the competition in the group stages with just a single win in three matches.
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