COSAFA SENIOR CHALLENGE 2010

September 15th, 2010 | by: sscouser | Comments(7)

The COSAFA Senior Challenge is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa and it is organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations. It was inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of South Africa had been lifted and the Africa Cup of Nations had been staged there in 1996. It features “the very best of Southern Africa’s talent and affords spectators the opportunity to see not only the finest talent of today, but the stars of tomorrow.” The following teams have participated in the tournament in the past: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Last year, the COSAFA Senior Challenge was in limbo following South Africa’s Mpumalanga Provincial Government’s singing a different tune with regards to sponsoring the annual event. The Mpumalanga Provincial Government, which sponsored the event in 2008, had made a U-turn on their earlier commitment to bankroll the tournament for the next three years, citing the global financial meltdown as the main reason. Zimbabwe ended up hosting the tournament from 17 October to November 1, 2009 through funding by the Zimbabwe Government and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (to support ZIFA’s bid to host the regional championship from which they wished to showcase their facilities ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals). At the draw of the COSAFA Senior Challenge 2009 it was revealed that South African Breweries (SAB) through their Castle Lager brand would be back as sponsors of the COSAFA Senior Challenge. They were the sponsors from 1997 to 2007.

COSAFA SENIOR CHALLENGE 2009
Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Malawi entered the competition at the quarter-final stage on account of their superior FIFA rankings. Mozambique beat Malawi 1-0 in the quarter-finals but lost to Zambia 2-0 in the Semi-Finals. The hosts (Zimbabwe) beat Botswana 1-0 in the quarter-finals, South Africa 3-2 (penalties) in the Semi-Finals and Zambia 3-1 in the finals.

COSAFA SENIOR CHALLENGE WINNERS:
Zambia: 1997, 1998 and 2006
South Africa: 2002, 2007 and 2008
Angola: 1999, 2001 and 2004
Zimbabwe: 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2009

COSAFA SENIOR CHALLENGE 2010
The 14th edition of the COSAFA Senior Challenge will be held in Angola from November 13-27, 2010. The 2010 COSAFA Senior Challenge will be played against the backdrop of Angola’s celebrations of 35 years of independence, with the government choosing to include the prestigious event on their calendar of festivities to show their support for football in the region (Government Interference?). They will utilise some of the excellent infrastructure that was put in place for the Africa Cup of Nations Angola 2010: The Estádio Nacional de Ombaka in Benguela and the Estádio Nacional da Tundavala in Lubango (picture). No games will be played in either the capital Luanda or in the northern enclave of Cabinda. The Angolan Football Federation (FAF) said that the costs of staging the tournament will be shared between the government of Angola and the regional body.

The draw will take place week after next. The format of the 2010 COSAFA Senior Challenge will see two groups of four teams play in a round-robin format in the first round. The sides will be determined using the FIFA world rankings to select the eight lowest positioned nations in the COSAFA region.

The top team in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will be joined by the six top-ranked nations in Southern Africa, again according to the FIFA world rankings.

If the current rankings (above) will be used for the draw then South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana (Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers Group K current leaders), Mozambique and Angola will go straight to Quarter-finals stage.

Please note that at the time of the draw for the 2008 COSAFA Senior Challenge Malawi was ahead of Botswana on FIFA Rankings but for some reason the organising committee decided to use the rankings at the time the invitations were sent out: “The organising committee revisited the issue but after some deliberations, it was agreed that we stick with the initial plan which had Botswana amongst the six seeded countries. Obviously, Malawi will not be impressed by the decision but at times, we have to take such decisions,” said COSAFA Executive Secretary, Ashford Mamelodi (Malawi robbed in broadday light)

T.I.A?