This year’s COSAFA Cup edition has been cancelled with the organisers, the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations, there is no enough time for preparations.
The development comes when countries have been in the recent past easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions resulting in the resumption of some sporting activities. COSAFA said in a statement:
Sadly, this news has come too late to allow for the Cosafa Cup, with too little preparation time available to utilise the October Fifa international window, and a packed international calendar to the end of the year with the resumption of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in November.
Cosafa remains hopeful that four of its six tournaments that had been pencilled for this year will still be fulfilled before year-end. Below are new dates:
- Cosafa Women’s Championship now scheduled for 3-14 November in South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Bay.
- Cosafa Women’s Under-17 Championship scheduled to take place in Nelson Mandela Bay concurrently with the senior tournament.
- Cosafa Men’s Under-17 Championship to take place in South Africa from 19-29 November, venues yet to be determined.
- Two finalists of the competition will qualify for the continental finals in Morocco in July 2021.
- Cosafa Men’s Under-20 Championship no longer taking place in Mauritius, now planned to also take place in South Africa on 3-13 December.
A number of tournaments were called off or suspended earlier this year due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Some were hopeful that the virus would disappear in time for the competitions including AFCON and World Cup qualifiers to resume.
More: Sunday News