Record-breaking Cosafa Women’s Championship to be hosted in Gqeberha

A record-breaking, expanded 2024 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship is to be staged in Gqeberha, South Africa from October 22-November 2 as holders Malawi gear up to defend their maiden regional title won at last year’s tournament. 

Along with hosts South Africa, who are record seven-time winners of the regional championship, Malawi and Zambia headline a strong 14-team field that also includes Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles and Zimbabwe. 

It is the first time in the competition’s history there will be a full complement of 14 Cosafa sides involved, with the eagerly-anticipated pool stage draw held at Cosafa House in Johannesburg on Tuesday, October 8 at 12h00 CAT (10h00 GMT) and streamed live on Cosafa’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page. 

The teams will be split into four groups, two containing four teams and two with three nations. The four group winners will qualify for 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. 

It will be another exciting installment of the best regional women’s competition on the continent, with both Zambia and African champions South Africa having shown huge progress at national team level in the recent past. Both competed at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, while Zambia were also at the last two Olympic Games tournaments. 

Malawi showed their tremendous potential as they claimed a maiden Cosafa crown last year, the fourth different winner in as many years after South Africa (2020), East African guest nation Tanzania (2021) and Zambia (2022). 

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. 

It will be fascinating to see who are the stars of tomorrow that could emerge at this year’s tournament. 

South Africa have won seven of the previous 10 Cosafa Women’s Championships played, with Zimbabwe (2011), Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi the other teams to lift the trophy.