ANGOLA will host this year’s edition of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) Senior Challenge from November 13 to 27.
The tournament will be held in the cities of Benguela and Lubango, centres which hosted matches during the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in January. Cosafa reached an agreement for the hosting of the Southern African championship with the Angolan minister of sport, Gonçalves Muandumba, in Luanda last Wednesday.The 2010 Cosafa Senior Challenge will be played against the backdrop of Angola’s celebrations of 35 years of independence, with the government choosing to include the prestigious event on their calendar of festivities to show their support for football in the region. The Estádio Nacional de Ombaka in Benguela and the Estádio Nacional da Tundavala in Lubango will be the stages for the 14-team event, one that will utilise the excellent infrastructure that was put in place for the Nations Cup.’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. We are pleased to be able to take the tournament to such a wonderful part of our region, and at the same time give the Angolan provinces of Benguela and HuÃla additional exposure for the first-class facilities which they built for the Nations Cup,’ says the president of Cosafa, Suketu Patel.For the Angolan government, it is the second major football tournament in the country in a year, showing their commitment to use sport as a driver of social upliftment.’We as government recognise the importance of football in the region and have therefore decided to include the 2010 Cosafa Senior Challenge as part of our Independence Day celebrations. ‘We are delighted to be hosting the cream of the football talent in southern Africa, and look forward to welcoming the teams to Angola,’ said Muandumba.The format of the 2010 Cosafa Senior Challenge will see two groups of four teams play in a round-robin format in the first round. These sides will be determined using the FIFA World Rankings to select the eight lowest positioned nations in the Cosafa region.The top team in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will be joined by the six top-ranked sides in southern Africa, again according to the FIFA World Rankings. The tournament then continues in a knockout format, with the final to be held in Benguela on November 27. Zimbabwe are the current holders of the title after they beat Zambia 3-1 on home soil in the 2009 final, while Angola will be looking to build on their quarterfinal finish in that competition this time round. – Nampa
