The 2024 COSAFA Women's Championship, also known as the 2024 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women's Championship, was the twelfth edition of the COSAFA Women's Championship. It was for sponsorship purposes, and the annual international

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...

championship was contested by the women's national teams of

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

and was organized by

COSAFA Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (; ), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the football playing nations in Southern Africa. It is affiliated to CAF. COSAFA organise several tournaments in the Southern African ...

. The tournament took place in

Gqeberha Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipa ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

from 22 October to 2 November 2024. The opening match was won by

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

for the second consecutive year, defeating debutant

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

6–0 at the

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a association football, soccer and rugby union stadium in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It hosted 2010 FIFA World Cup matches, including the third-place play off. It is the home of Chip ...

, achieving their biggest win to date.

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

were the defending champions, having claimed their first title in the previous edition. However, their attempt to defend the title fell short in the semi-finals when they were eliminated by the eventual champions

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, who went on to clinch their second title after defeating host

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

4–3 on penalties following a scoreless draw. Zambian players Ochumba Lubandji and

Fridah Mukoma Fridah Mukoma (born 13 October 2006) is a Zambian footballer who plays a forward for Chinese Women's Super League club Beijing on loan from National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) side Kansas City Current and the Zambia national team. Club career ...

co-jointly won the Golden Boot scoring four goals each throughout the tournament. South Africa's Isabella Ludwig was voted the tournament's best player, winning the Golden Ball, whilst Ludwig's teammate Jessica Williams won the Golden Glove, awarded to the best-performing goalkeeper of the tournament. Of the fourteen participating teams,

made their tournament debut, with them and

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

scoring their first-ever goals in the competition against South Africa and Madagascar, respectively.

Comoros The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni, ...

achieved their first win in the tournament after defeating Angola in the group stage.

Format

The competition format was unveiled at the official draw ceremony held in October 2024. The tournament began with a group stage featuring four groups (two groups of four teams and two groups of three teams). The top team from each group progressed to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals advanced to the final, while, for the first time since 2020, no third-place match was held.

Teams

Participation

A record 14

Member Associations have entered this year's edition, marking the first time all members were participating. Of the 14 teams competing, 12 featured in last year's 2023 edition.

returned to the tournament after missing the previous edition, while

made their debut in the competition. '

Squads

Draw

The final group stage draw took place at COSAFA House in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa, on 8 October 2024 at 12:00 SAST (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

). For this edition, the top three teams from the previous tournament, along with the host nation, were automatically placed into the following positions. South Africa, the host nation, to position A1; Malawi, the 2023 champions, were assigned to position B1; Zambia, the 2023 runners-up, to position C1; and Mozambique, the 2023 third-place team, to position D1. The remaining teams were seeded into three pots for the draw: Pot 1 included Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola; Pot 2 featured Eswatini, Madagascar, Comoros, and Lesotho; and Pot 3 contained Seychelles and Mauritius, who did not compete in the previous edition.

Venues

has been selected as the host city for this year's tournament, with two venues located within the city itself and one in the nearby iBhayi

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

, including the renowned

Officials

appointed 11 referees, 11 assistant referees, and 3 video assistant referees for the tournament. VAR was introduced from Matchday Three onward, a shift from the previous edition where it was only implemented starting from the semifinals. ;Referees * Tânia Marisa Duarte * Seonyatseng Tshephe * Nteboheleng Setoko * Eness Gumbo * Vistoria Shangula * Antsino Twanyanyukwa * Akhona Makalima * Gloria Sambumba * Mercy Mayimbo * Grace Gimo * Thanks Nyahuye ;Assistant Referees * Leungo Tsogang * Polotso Maapara * Bernadettar Kwimbira * Mphatso M'matete * Roda Mondlane * Olivia Amukuu * Nandipha Menze * Diana Chikotesha * Lumbizai Musawa * Mercy Zulu * Claris Simango ;Video assistant referees * Letticia Viana * Imtehaz Heeralall * Abongile Tom

Group stage

All times are local, SAST (

). The match schedule was announced by COSAFA on 9 October 2024.

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Group C

---- ----

Group D

---- ----

Knockout stage

*In the knockout stage,

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

were used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

South Africa and Zambia played the final for the third time in the

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

's history, following previous encounters in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, both of which ended 1–0 (one win for South Africa and one for Zambia). the Host Banyana Banyana enters as the record champion with seven titles, while the Copper Queens holds one. The two teams have met six times in the

's history, with South Africa winning three matches and Zambia one, while the other two encounters ended in draws, each team winning the shootout once. Player of the Match:
Evarine Katongo (Zambia) Assistant referees:
Claris Simango (

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

)
Leungo Tsogang (

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

)

Fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (also known as a linesman) is an official who assists the referee in administering the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels ...

:
Eness Gumbo (

)

Video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

:
Letticia Viana (

)
Assistant video assistant referee:
Imtehaz Heeralall (

)

Award

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: the Golden Boot (top scorer), Golden Ball (best overall player) and Golden Glove (best goalkeeper).

Statistics

Goal scorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences: *Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offences) *Receiving two yellow cards in two matches; yellow cards expire after the completion of the group stage (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches) The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

Final ranking

Broadcasting rights

External links

Official website2024 COSAFA Women's Championship
at Soccerway

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:COSAFA Women's Championship 2024

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

2024–25 in South African soccer 2024 in South African women's sport COSAFA Championship International association football competitions hosted by South Africa October 2024 sports events in Africa November 2024 sports events in Africa