Malawi U-20 drawn against Zambia, Zimbabwe in Cosafa
Malawi national Under 20 Football team has been drawn against neighbours Zambia and Zimbabwe in the Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) first draw conducted on Wednesday 26th October 2016 in Moruleng in South Africa’ North West Province.
The prestigious youth tournament will be played in Moruleng from the 7th to the 16th of December 2016.
In a statement released by COSAFA, Chairman for the association’s Competitions Committee Timothy Shongwe said they are pleased to bounce back with the competitions which he said hekp in unearthing youth talent.
“COSAFA is pleased to be able to organise this edition of the Under 20 tournament as one of our objectives to develop and promote football talent in our zone” said Shongwe.
“Therefore, organising this tournament is one of our key focus area’s and we would like to thank the South Arfican Football Association and the North Wst Province, our valued sponsors PPC and all our partners for assisting us in this regard,” he added.
Group A comprises of the hosts and defending champions South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana.
Malawi is in group B there alonside Zambia and Zimbabwe while Angola, Namibia, Seychelles and Mauritius are in group C.
The final Group has Mozambique, Comoros Islands and Rwanda from the Eastern Africa who will participate as guests in place of Madagascar.
According to COSAFA, all the teams will play each other in their respective groups in a round-robin format with only the top side from each pool advancing to the semifinals.
The only twist is that the top teams in Group B and D which have three teams, after the second round will play a third game as a crossover fixture between those two pools to ensure that the most competing sides get to play three times.
The winner of Group B will play the winner of Group D and vice-versa.
Information posted on COSAFA website indicates that the group matches will be played between 7th and 13th December while semifinals will be played a day later before the remainin teams rest for a day waiting for the final.
Both the third place and actial finals will be played on 3rd December.
Two venues will be used during the 2016 Cosafa Under 20 edition and these are Mogwase and Moruleng with the latter exclusively been used from the semifinal stage onwards.
Zambian remains the only nation to have won the tournment with a 10 time record followed by Zimbabwe six while South Africa has won the cup five times.
Madagascar is the only other team to have won the prestigious trophy once in 2005.
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