South Africa chases fourth CAF African Schools, Cosafa qualifiers title
The fourth edition of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) African Schools Football Championship, Cosafa Qualifiers, takes place in Stellenbosch from 5 to 7 December.
The tournament, which South Africa has won three times since its inception in 2022, serves as the final stage of the competition and leads to the finals of the CAF African Schools Football Champions where winners from various zones across the African continent compete to determine the ultimate boys’ and girls’ champions.
The Cosafa qualifiers features teams from Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.
Since its inaugural edition in 2022, the competition has expanded. Initially, the qualifiers and the final stage featured top schools from each country representing their nations. In recent years, however, national teams have represented their countries.
In 2022, the Clapham High‘s boys’ team and Edendale Technical High‘s girls’ team represented South Africa during the Cosafa qualifiers, with both winning the zonal competition, which earned them the right to represent the South African boys’ and girls’ teams in the final stages of the competition in South Africa.
In 2023, the format shifted away from individual schools when the qualifiers were held in Zimbabwe. South Africa was, however, crowned the champion in both the boys’ and girls’ competitions of the Cosafa qualifiers again.
The latest Cosafa qualifiers took place in Namibia in 2024. Once again, South Africa won both the boys’ and girls’ competitions, thus earning themselves places at the CAF African Schools Championship, which was held in Ghana earlier this year.
The winners of the girls’ competition was Ghana, while the boys’ competition was won by Tanzania.
South Africa has represented the Cosafa region three times in the final stage of the CAF African Schools Championship, including in 2024, when the South African girls won the continental title in Zanzibar.
In 2023, South Africa was the runner-up in the competition, with their representative Clapham High losing the boys’ final to Ben Sekou, from Guinea. Regulation time in the title game finished at 1-1, but Ben Sekou won 5-4 from the penalty spot in a shootout.
The CAF African Schools Championship has been championed by South Africa’s Dr. Patrice Motsepe, the President of CAF, with the Motsepe Foundation contributing an investment of $10 million into the competition.
Speaking to Cosafa Media, Dr. Motsepe said: “School football is at the heart of the long-term development and growth of African football.
“One of the best investments that we can make to ensure that African football is among the best in the world is to invest in school football and football infrastructure for boys and girls at school, amateur, and professional levels.”
Earlier this year, both Tanzania and Ghana received $300 000 in prize money. The runners-up were awarded $200 000, while the bronze medallists took home $150 000.
The prize money is designated for infrastructure development at schools, with many investing in educational and sporting resources for their students. Prize money is also up for grabs at the zonal union level.
The champions of December’s CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier will be awarded $100 000, while the second-place team will receive $75 000, and the team finishing in third place will earn $50 000.
In addition to the action on the field, the event will feature numerous other initiatives, including Safeguarding Workshops for young individuals, a Young Reporters Programme, and workshops for referees and coaches.
