The 2023 COSAFA Women's Championship was the eleventh edition of the

COSAFA Women's Championship The COSAFA Women's Championship is an association football tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). South Africa have won the most titles with seven wins. Zambia are the curr ...

, also known as the 2023

Hollywoodbets Hollywoodbets is a South African sports betting company offering a wide range of betting options, including horse racing, football/soccer, cricket, rugby, tennis, motorsport and more. Hollywoodbets offers over 2400 Lucky Numbers draws a week to ...

COSAFA Women's Championship for sponsorship purposes, 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 contested by 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 organised 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 from 4 to 15 October 2023 in

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 ...

. 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 ...

, beating

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Lucas Moripe Stadium Lucas "Masterpieces" Moripe Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atteridgeville, a township (South Africa), township of Pretoria, South Africa. With a capacity to host 28,900 spectators, it is currently used mostly for Association footb ...

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

on 4 October 2023 and achieving their first COSAFA Women's Championship victory since 2020.

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 crowned 2023 champions after defeating reigning champions Zambia's Copper Queens 2–1 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 ...

. It was the first time Malawi had won a COSAFA Women's tournament, securing their first major title.

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

claimed their first medal at the COSAFA Women's Championship. Malawian player Temwa Chawinga achieved a remarkable double, clinching the Golden Boot with nine goals during the tournament and also claiming the Golden Ball award. Zimbabwe goalkeeper Cynthia Shongwe won the Golden Glove, awarded to the best-performing goalkeeper of the tournament. Of the twelve teams taking part,

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 ...

and

returned to the competition after missing last year's edition. 2011 Champions Zimbabwe advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2019. Host and seven times champion South Africa were eliminated in the group stage after they failed to beat Malawi, the first time the team had not made the semi-finals at the tournament.

Format

In September 2023, during the draw ceremony, the competition format was revealed. The tournament commences with a group stage comprising three groups, each consisting of four teams. The group winners, along with the highest-ranked second-placed team, advance to the knockout stage. The winners of each semifinal proceed to the final, while the losing teams face off in a third-place match to determine the bronze medalist.

Venues

COSAFA has selected three venues within the province of

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

, two cities were selected

and

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 ...

, one stadium in Pretoria and two stadiums in Johannesburg.

, Pretoria will host the opening match between South Africa and Malawi. The same stadium will host the third-place match and the final on 15 October.

Teams

Participation

Twelve member associations of

have confirmed their participation in this year's edition. Out of the 12 taking part in this year's edition, 10 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2022.

made a comeback after being absent from last year's edition. while

whose team had been inactive since 2019, is returning to the international stage. ' ;Did not enter * *

Squads

Draw

The final draw took place at the COSAFA Headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 14 September 2023 at 11:00 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 ...

). In this edition, three teams were seeded based on their performance in the

2022 COSAFA Women's Championship The 2022 COSAFA Women's Championship is the 10th edition of the COSAFA Women's Championship, a women's international football tournament for national teams organised by COSAFA, teams from Southern Africa. It takes place from 31 August to 11 Sept ...

: Zambia (the 2022 Champions, assigned to B1), South Africa (the 2022 Runners-up, assigned to A1), and Namibia (the 2022 Fourth-place team, assigned to C1). Additionally, two pots were formed for the draw. Pot 1 included the next highest-ranked teams, namely Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique, while Pot 2 comprised the six remaining lowest-ranked teams, which are Angola, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe.

Officials

COSAFA's appointed referees and assistant referees have not yet been announced. For the first time in the tournament history Video assistant referees (VAR) will be used from the semi-finals onwards. ;Referees * Seonyatseng Tshephe * Letticia Viana * Nteboheleng Setoko * Rosa Hanjavola * Rosalie Rosalie * Eness Gumbo * Mercy Kayira * Maria Rivet * Antsino Twanyanyukwa * Vistoria Shangula * Salima Mukansanga * Akhona Makalima * Gloria Sambumba * Grace Gimo ;Assistant Referees * Leungo Tsogang * Mary Njoroge * Lidwine Rakotozafinord * Herilalaina Razafitsalama * Bernadettar Kwimbira * Windy Rambhoro * Olinda Couana * Eveline Augustinus * Nandipha Menze * Diana Chikotesha * Mercy Zulu * Claris Simango ;Video assistant referees * Ahmad Heeralall * Emiliano dos Santos

Group stage

All times are local, SAST (

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Group C

---- ----

Ranking of runner-up teams

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 ...

will be used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

Semi-finals

Third-place match

Final

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

External links

Official website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:COSAFA

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 ...

COSAFA Championship 2023–24 in South African soccer 2023 in South African women's sport International association football competitions hosted by South Africa