Namibia’s Brave Gladiators have been drawn alongside South Africa, Eswatini and Seychelles for this year’s record-breaking Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship that will be staged in Gqeberha, South Africa from 22 October – 2 November.
There are 14 teams competing in this year’s tournament, making it the biggest women’s international competition yet staged on the African continent.
Namibia were drawn in Group A on Tuesday, alongside the hosts, South Africa, who are record seven-time winners of the competition, Eswatini and debutants Seychelles.
Defending champions Malawi have been drawn alongside Botswana, Madagascar and Mauritius in Group B.
Malawi will hope to progress from Group B to the semifinals but face a tough Botswana side who reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The 2022 winners Zambia headline the three-team Group C along with Angola and Comoros, while Group D contains Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
The top teams in each of the pools advance to the semifinals.
There will be two venues used in Gqeberha, including the iconic Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium that was built ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup and remains among the best stadia in Africa.
There is no doubt that this tournament, along with the regular staging of the Cosafa Women’s under-17 Championship and the zonal qualifiers for the CAF Women’s Champions League have been a catalyst for this success of national teams from the region.
Players such as Temwa Chawinga, who is excelling in the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States with Kansas City, Barbra Banda and the world’s most expensive women’s footballer, Racheal Kundananji, to go with a host of South Africans, have cut their teeth at international level in this competition.
South Africa have won seven of the previous 11 Cosafa Women’s Championships played, with Zimbabwe (2011), Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi the other teams to lift the trophy. – cosafa.com
HOLLYWOODBETS COSAFA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW
GROUP A
South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, Seychelles
GROUP B
Malawi, Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius
GROUP C
Zambia, Angola, Comoros
GROUP D
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho
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