Malawi Women’s U-17 to debut in Cosafa U-17 Championship
The Africa Union Sports Council Region 5 will offer Malawi an advantage as hosts as the Malawi Women Under-17 will make a debutant appearance in the Cosafa Under-17 Championship.
The Region 5 Games, scheduled for December 2 to 11 in Malawi’s capital city Lilongwe, will also be used as Cosafa Tournament and Football Association of Malawi has never sponsored the Under-17 to Cosafa Tournaments due to financial problems.
Meanwhile, Malawi have been drawn in Group A alongside South Africa and Mauritius at the Cosafa Women’s Under-17 Championship following a draw held on Monday.
The other group pits Zambia, who are the defending champions, last year finalists Botswana and Comoros.
Football Association of Malawi general secretary Alfred Gunda said Mighty Tigers coach Trevor Kajawa will take charge of the team.
In an interview Kajawa said they would like to win it on home soil.
The tournament was initially planned to be played on round-robin format, but Cosafa
changed the format following the late confirmation of Comoros as the sixth team.
A statement from Cosafa reads in part: “The competition was initially to be played in a single pool of five teams, but Comoros requested a late entry to the tournament and this was accepted in order to provide their players with some valuable international experience.”
Following the change in format, the top two sides in each pool advance to the semi-finals.
Uganda were the inaugural winners of the Cosafa Under-17 Women’s Championship after beating South Africa 2-1 in the decider in Mauritius in 2019.
Tanzania won the 2020 edition with Zambia getting last year’s honours.
Malawi will host the tournament for the first time. Mauritius (2019), South Africa (2020) and Lesotho (2021) have been the other three hosts.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
