The 2020 COSAFA Under-17 Championship is the 9th edition of the COSAFA U-17 Championship, a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament organized by the

Council of Southern Africa Football Associations Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (french: Conseil des Associations de Football en Afrique Australe; pt, Conselho das Associações de Futebol da África Austral), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the football ...

(COSAFA) involving teams from Southern Africa for players aged 17 and below. The tournament is also the qualifier for the

2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations The 2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the 2021 Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, was planned to be the 14th edition (19th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African interna ...

, which in turn is the qualifier for the

2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup would have been the 19th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It would have been ...

and will be played on November 19–29 in Nelson Mandela Bay and the two finalists of the tournament will be representing COSAFA in the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations. Initially, it was planned to be played in Malawi in July but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the first four games, (2 in each group), the tournament was re-started as four teams (

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

, Zimbabwe, Botswana,

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

) were disqualified for using over-aged players.

Participating teams

Last year's runners-up Mozambique were meant to be the 9th nation to participate, but in the end 8 of the 14

COSAFA Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (french: Conseil des Associations de Football en Afrique Australe; pt, Conselho das Associações de Futebol da África Austral), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the footbal ...

teams entered to compete for this year's trophy. After the first round of games four teams were expelled due to cheating, namely: * * * * So the tournament restarted with the following genuine combatants: * * * (Hosts) * (Defending champions)

Match Officials

Referees * Audrick Nkole ( Zambia) * (Ms) Vistoria Nuusiku Shangula ( Namibia) * Godfrey Nkhakananga ( Malawi) * Thulani Sibandze (

) * Luxolo Badi ( South Africa) * Lawrence Zimondi ( Zimbabwe) * Tshepo Mokani Gobagoba ( Botswana) * Artur Adriano Alfinar ( Mozambique) * (Ms) Thank Nyahuye ( Zimbabwe) Assistant Referees * (Ms) Mercy Zulu ( Zambia) * Thomas Kaela ( Zambia) * (Ms) Buyisile Patricia Mkhaliphi (

) * Venestancio Cossa ( Mozambique) * Tafadzwa Nkala ( Zimbabwe) * Lucky Kegakologetswe ( Botswana) * Shaun Siza Dlangamandla (

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

)

Group stage

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Third place match

Final

Qualification for CAF Cup of Nations

The two finalists of the tournament will qualify for the

. Qualified nations:

Champion

Top Scorers

COSAFA-La Liga partnership

South Africa's Mduduzi Shabalala and Zambia's Joseph Banda was selected by the Technical Study Group to be traveling to Spain for a LaLiga development experience, where they will get the opportunity to observe the football life in Spain and train with a local team. The duo become the first players along with their two counterparts from 2020 COSAFA Women's U17 Championship to get this opportunity on account of the new formalization of the partnership between COSAFA and La Liga to boost Southern African football

Disqualification

Prior the tournament, CAF scanned all players with MRI, to make sure that everyone was eligible for the age-category. In the tournament regulations there is stated that the scanning will take place and a team that have players that do not pass the eligibility test will be disqualified and sent home as soon as possible. The test that is used world wide to measure eligibility for U17 tournaments focus on bone fusions in the wrist that are unlikely (with 99% accuracy rate) to appear before the age of 17.

, Zimbabwe, Botswana,

, were all found to have one or more players too old to participate in the tournament whereby the teams were disqualified. Because of this, it was decided to re-start the tournament with the other four teams and regard the already played games as warm-up for the tournament without any result value. The tournament were decided to be played as a round-robin where the top two qualify for the final (as well as the

) and the bottom two qualify for the bronze medal game.

Original draw

The teams were on 2 November drawn from 2 different pots, as the top-seeded teams were placed in one group each. After drawing the first two teams from pot 1 the last team were put together with the teams from pot 2 to draw the last two teams to each group.

Abandoned Group stage

Group A

Group B

Abandoned Knockout stage

References

External links

Official website
{{COSAFA championships COSAFA Under-17 Championship International association football competitions hosted by South Africa 2020 in African football