JOHANNESBURG The 2010 edition of the Cosafa Senior Challenge tournament will be held in Angola from November 13-27 this year, according to the regional soccer controlling body. (Pictured: The Warriors team that lifted the COSAFA trophy last year)
The Zimbabwe Warriors will go into this 14th edition of the annual tournament as defending champions, after they beat Zambia 3-1 as hosts in the 2009 Final.
The tournament, to be jointly hosted by the Angolan Football Federation and the Angolan government, will be staged in the cities of Benguela and Lubango, which also hosted matches during the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in January.
This comes after an agreement reached between Cosafa organisers of the annual southern African championship, and the Angolan Minister of Youth and Sports, Gonalves Muandumba, in Luanda last week.
The event will also coincide with Angola’s celebrations of its 35 years of independence, with the government choosing to include the prestigious event on their calendar of festivities to show its support for football in the region.
“We are delighted that Angola has taken up the challenge and shown such excellent support for the region by agreeing to host the 2010 Cosafa Senior Challenge, said Cosafa President, Suketu Patel.
The 2010 event will see two groups of four teams play in a round-robin format in the first round, the latest Fifa world rankings being used to select the eight lowest positioned nations in the Cosafa region.
The top team in each pool will advance to the quarter-finals, where they will be joined by the six top-ranked nations in southern Africa, again according to the Fifa world rankings. The tournament will then continue in a knockout format, with the final to be played on November 27.
This will be a chance for the Zimbabwe Warriors, who missed out on the 2010 AFCON, to have a feel of some of the stadiums in which Egypt lifted their record seventh AFCON title, after the Pharaohs edged eventual 2010 FIFA World Cup quarterfinalists Ghana 1-0 in the final.
Despite having made it to only two AFCON finals and doing badly on both occasions, the Warriors are one of the regional powerhouses, having won the Cosafa Cup a record four times and will be looking at extending that to five this year.
They will however, meet strong challenge from hosts Angola, who will be looking to build on their quarterfinal finish in the 2010 AFCON.
Angola have won the COSAFA cup three time in 1999, 2001 and 2004, the same as Zambia – 1997, 1998 and 2006 and South Africa, who were crowned champions in 2002, 2007 and 2008.
The Warriors are currently ranked lowest among the four COSAFA favourites, with South Africa 12th in African and 66th in the world on the FIFA World rankings, being the top-placed team, followed by Zambia at 14 on the continent and 72nd in the World.
Angola are placed at number 19 in Africa and 87 in the world, while Zimbabwe are in position 29 in Africa and 113, which us way below even minnows Mozambique, who occupy the 17th spot on the continent and 80th in the world. Botswana are also above Zimbabwe, at 21st in Africa and 93rd in the world.
Post published in: Football