Online Reporter
THE Caf African Schools Football Championship | Cosafa Qualifier will kick-off in Stellenbosch, South Africa on Friday, when the 10 teams will battle it out for a place at the Continental Finals next year.
The qualifiers are now in their fourth year, with South Africa having been victorious in both the Boys and Girls competitions for the previous three editions. It will be fascinating to see if another power from the region can image to break their dominance.
All matches will be streamed LIVE on Caf TV and Cosafa’s YouTube Channel. But this competition is about much more than the football, it is a chance for young players across Southern African to connect on and off the pitch and learn valuable life-lessons with the array of workshops and events that take place on the sidelines.
There is training for young coaches, referees, reporters and doctors, safeguarding and medical workshops, training in football analytics and digital skills, presentations from Caf African Schools Football Championship sponsors such as TotalEnergies and Danone.
All of this is packed into under a week in Stellenbosch, but the football competitions runs from Friday through to the finals in the Boys and Girls competitions on Sunday.
There was a single draw for both competitions, with the 10 teams split into three pools.
Group A has four teams, while Groups B and C have three. The top team in each pool advances to the semi-finals, along with the best second-placed side across the three pools.
In order to make a fair calculation for second place, the results against the team that finishes last in Group A will be disregarded.
South Africa are the top seed in Group A and will take on Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique in their pool. Zambia headlines the three-team Group B and take on Eswatini and Comoros in their pool, while Malawi are top seeds in Group C and are drawn with Lesotho and Botswana.
