Online Reporter
Fungai Muderere ,Online Reporter
MOROCCO have withdrawn from the Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup 2025 and will be replaced in the 14-team field by East Africa guest nation Tanzania for the June 4-15 tournament to be staged in Mangaung Bloemfontein.
Tanzania will take Morocco’s place in the three-team Group C, which has necessitated a tweak to the fixtures.
Tanzania will open their campaign on June 7 against Madagascar at the Toyota Stadium.
They will then face Eswatini in their second pool game on June 11 at the same venue.
The Tanzanians will see the competition as vital preparation for the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship finals they co-host with Kenya and Uganda in August.
Like all the competing teams, they will also use the opportunity to build towards the last two rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September, and the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco that kick off at the end of the year.
Tanzania are no strangers to the Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup having competed three times before, including in the inaugural year in 1997.
They finished fourth on that occasion in what was a round-robin competition, drawing three of their four games.
Tanzania returned in 2015 but did not make it out of their pool, losing all three fixtures.
They were back two years later, and this time took the bronze medal, knockout hosts South Africa out in the quarterfinals. They lost 4-2 to Zambia in the semifinals, but edged Lesotho on penalties to finish third.
Tanzania qualified for the CAF AFCON in both 2019 and 2023, having also featured all the way back in 1980.
derick.khumalo