The COSAFA Show

COSAFA qualifiers Mamelodi Sundowns will fly the flag for the Southern African region when they take on Ghanaian side Hasaacas Ladies in the final of the CAF Women’s Champions League in Cairo on Friday night.
Sundowns won the title in the COSAFA region and are now hoping to conquer Africa too, with just one team remaining to beat on their path to glory. The team have yet to concede a goal at the continental finals in Egypt but do come up against their toughest opponent to date in the form of Hasaacas.
Experienced striker Rhoda Mulaudzi will likely spearhead their attack in the game, and she says they are confident they can bring the trophy home.
“The preparations have gone really well, everyone is so excited,” Mulaudzi told The COSAFA Show from Cairo. “We know how big the game will be and how big it is to us as players, and for South African women’s football. 
“The previous games we were not playing our best football, but our last match, the semifinal, was one of the best matches we have played since we arrived here. So we should take that confidence forward into the final.
“We do need to focus more on scoring. Since we arrived here, we have struggled to score, but defensively we have played very well.”
Also on this episode of The COSAFA Show, we hear from South African Football Association President Dr Danny Jordaan on why his organisation have asked FIFA to investigate their 1-0 loss to Ghana in the 2022 World Cup qualifier in Cape Coast last Sunday.

Malawi national team coach Meke Mwase admits South Africa’s Premier Soccer League played a leading role in his side qualifying for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations that will take place in Cameroon from January. 
The likes of Orlando Pirates striker Gabadinho Mhango, AmaZulu defender Limbikani Mzava and the Baroka FC duo of midfielder Gerald Phiri Jnr and striker Richard Mbulu were all key elements of The Flames’ success. 
With Malawi’s domestic league suspended, the fact that those players were able to keep playing and stay match fit was a major plus, says former Jomo Cosmos defender Mwase. “Most of our foreign-based players are in South Africa, so when COVID-19 came on us, it was only South Africa’s Premier Soccer League that still had some games being played,” he told The COSAFA Show. “It really contributed a lot to our qualification, but I am a bit worried because a lot of them don’t have game-time [at their clubs] now.”
Malawi have been drawn in a tough pool in Cameroon along with Senegal, Guinea and COSAFA rivals Zimbabwe. They have two previous visits to the finals but have yet to get out of the pool stage. “All the teams are very strong, in football you don’t know what will happen. But what we are going to do is fight for ourselves and see how far we can go,” Mwase says. “We are still a young team and still learning, but we are very confident that we are going to do well in the finals in Cameroon. We hope the boys will give their all, for themselves and for Malawi as well.
“Since we have been there twice before, we have not qualified for the quarterfinals and this is what we are fighting for. But as well, we would like to finish in the semifinals or the final even. You never know in football.”
Also on this episode of The COSAFA Show, we hear from South African-born winger DeAndre Vollenhoven, who is just starting his career at New Zealand side Auckland City.

Veteran French coach Claude LeRoy has worked in Africa for the last 36 years and is among the most celebrated tacticians the continent has ever seen. A former Africa Cup of Nations winner with Cameroon, he has never held a position in the COSAFA region but knows African football inside out and is bullish about the rising quality of the game. He has recently completed a five-year spell with Togo, having also previously worked with Senegal, DR Congo and Ghana, who he took to a team record 14th position on the FIFA World Rankings in 2008. “The average level of African football is improving every year,” LeRoy tells The COSAFA Show. “And when you have a coach in charge of a national team for a long time, the results are good, like we see now in Senegal and Algeria.” He has expressed bitter disappointment that only two African players, Mo Salah from Egypt and Riyad Mahrez of Algeria, have been named as nominees for the FIFA Ballon d’Or this year and says this is the continued disrespect Africa has to endure. “What we need for African football is more than two players nominated for the Ballon d’Or. When you see, for example, the goalkeeper of Chelsea [Edouard] Mendy is not in the 30 best players in the world. It seems unbelievable. “The way the world is looking at Africa, it is still not enough. When people in Europe look at Africa, they don’t remember that the three top scorers in the English Premier League in the 2018-19 season were from the continent. “Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, and that is in what many people say is the best championship in the world. Therefore, how can you not recognise the level of African football? “Sure, we need to rise at the World Cup and have a team that gets to the semifinals, but it will happen. The level of football in Africa is definitely growing every year.” Also in this episode we hear from Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos, and the coaches who led their teams in the final of the 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championship!

South African coach Shilene Booysen has embarked in a unique adventure in South Sudan, hoping to develop the women’s national team into a competitive unit in the coming years having started essentially from scratch. South Sudan only played their first international fixture in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic has, to a certain extent, curtailed their international opportunities since then. But Booysen, who forged an excellent reputation as an analyst with Banyana Banyana and Houston Dash in the United States, sees it as a calling and says that while the road ahead may be bumpy, it is exciting times for the country.

“There is huge potential in South Sudan, I am convinced of that,” she told The COSAFA Show. “There is the talent, but it is about putting in place the right structures for the national team to grow. “That will take time, we are under no illusions of that, but we have seen progress already in just a few months and it is exciting for the future.” The team is competing at the 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championship in Nelson Mandela Bay and lost their opener 7-0 to Botswana. But Booysen says it is not so much about results at this stage of their development, but more gaining experience for a team that have played just a handful of internationals. “We do not look so much at the results right now, but I was very happy with the fight from my team against Botswana (after being 6-0 down at halftime). “It is about the players working to the plan and showing that they can implement the things we want them too. This will not happen overnight, but in the years ahead.”

Former Zambia coach Patrice Beaumelle believes Africa should have more teams at the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and says the only way to take national teams on the continent to the next level is to have them play regularly at the global showpiece. Africa will have just five representatives from their 54 member associations in Qatar next year, while Europe, for example, which has 55 members, will have 13 slots, almost triple the number. Beaumelle, who is now in charge of Ivory Coast, says this uneven split is holding back the African continent, with the likes of South America to also have as many as five slots despite having only 10 members.

“Africa has good football and good players, and I feel like sometimes Europe underrates African football,” Beaumelle says on The COSAFA Show. “I would like to pass a message to FIFA to say we don’t respect African football, when out of 54 federations in Africa, only five can qualify for the World Cup. It is not even 10%.“How can we represent the continent when you don’t have one team in each group [at the finals]. When you look at Europe, I think they have 13 teams in the group stages. Sometimes you have two teams from Europe in one group at the World Cup.“We have 32 teams [at Qatar 2022] and we have eight groups, but only five [African teams], meaning we are missing a minimum three teams.” No African team has reached the semifinals and it was a poor showing from the five representatives in 2018, who each went out in the first round. But Beaumelle says this will continue while African teams have limited exposure to the global showpiece competition.“To go to the semifinals, you have to get experience. If you put more teams into the competition, more will get out of the first round,” he says.“If you look at the last World Cup [Russia 2018], we were Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria and Senegal. That meant Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, they stayed home. And I think such teams deserve to go to every World Cup.

The South Africa Football Association (SAFA) have effectively given new coach Hugo Broos a free pass and said qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is not a requirement in his mandate.

It comes as Broos starts his tenure with a completely new team from that which failed to reach the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, with a number of young and inexperienced players that it is hoped will be peaking in their careers around the time of the 2026 World Cup.

SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan explains the organization’s vision in the latest episode of the COSAFA Show, and exactly why they brought Broos on board.

“I think we have hope again,” he said. “This is a new beginning, we have a new coach, new assistant coach, new technical staff, new medical staff, new goalkeeper coach. And young players, you look at their faces, some are still babies that have been thrown into international football.

“So it's a fresh start, a new vision, new path, new direction. And the first match against Zimbabwe, in Harare on an uneven pitch, is going to be a huge test for this team. And if they can get positive results, I think we are on the way of the renewal of Bafana.

"We've tried to qualify for the World Cup and AFCON with '30 something' players and we didn't make it. And therefore, when we called Broos, it was because he was previously the coach of Cameroon and when he started, he had to also bring an end to all of those great players there who were over their 30s.

"Nobody gave that team a chance, in Cameroon or outside of it. And he brought those young boys and they won the [2017] AFCON.

“And suddenly there was a new generation of players. This is what we said to him. His contract is until 2026, which means it's to the next World Cup. And so what we will demand from him is qualification for the next AFCON [in 2023] and the next World Cup [in 2026].”

In this episode of The COSAFA Show we hear from Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi on the champions’ chances ahead of the new season in South Africa, and explore the three-year partnership between COSAFA, the KwaZulu-Natal Government and eThekwini Municipality that was announced this week. The latter will see the COSAFA Cup staged in Durban for the next two editions, while the COSAFA Women’s Championship and COSAFA Beach Soccer Championship will be played in the coastal city for the next three years.

Starting next week, Durban will host the 2021 TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League | COSAFA Qualifier to kick-off the partnership.

But all eyes will be on the DStv Premiership this weekend as Sundowns open the defence of their title at home to AmaZulu on Friday. Mngqithi knows it will be a long season for them, as they battle on the domestic front as well as the CAF Champions League. Finding the right number for the squad is tricky, especially with COVID-19 still a factor.

“We are in a very unfortunate situation because we happen to play more matches than any other team in the league, but one big issue is how to manage the squad,” Mngqithi says on The COSAFA Show. “Last season we had a rife COVID-19 situation that forced us to play almost every member of the squad [at some stage in the season], but this season we think the situation is getting better, based on the tests we are doing over time. “It is not always proper to have a big squad, you have maybe 8-10 players on the outside when we are doing our tactical work and you have to try and bring everybody to give them all a chance. “But as coaches, with what is happening at the moment, we are around 30-32 players that we have within the team and the possibility of settling on that number. But with COVID-19 hovering about you, we don’t know if that is the right number.”

The TOTALENERGIES CAF Women’s Champions League l COSAFA Qualifier from August 26 to September 4 is an exciting new entry into the calendar for the region and will raise the standard of club football in more ways than one.
The draw on Thursday saw South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies seeded in Group A, where they will take on Lesotho Defence Force, Double Action Ladies from Botswana, and Eswatini’s Manzini Wanderers.

Zambian side Green Buffaloes are the seeds in the three-team Group B and have been drawn alongside Black Rhinos Queens of Zimbabwe and TURA Magic from Namibia. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals.
But aside from the action on the pitch, COSAFA has also been raising the bar by introducing club licensing that means teams have to meet a minimum standard. It forced Mozambican club Costa do Sol to have to pull out.
“Quite a few of the participants here are the ladies’ section of the men’s teams, so the club as a whole will have knowledge of the club licensing regulations,” COSAFA General Secretary Sue Destombes told The COSAFA Show.
“Being a first time for women’s clubs, the regulations have been lowered because we do have to give ladies stand-alone teams time to get themselves there.”
Destombes says the regulations have been approved by the Confederation of African Football to raise the standards of the women’s game.
“Every club should have access to their own stadium, not necessarily to own it, but have access for training and matches.
“This year CAF have been very lenient with the coaching licenses to give an opportunity for the clubs to catch up, so the head coach this year must have a CAF A, B or C license. By next year that will change. 
“The assistant coaches this year have no requirements, but that will also change next year. So it is forcing clubs who have ladies’ sections to get their house in order across the sporting, technical and administrative criteria. It is good, it protects the stature of the competition.”

The COSAFA Cup reaches the semifinal stage on Friday with South Africa to tackle Mozambique and west African guest national Senegal up against Eswatini for a place in Sunday’s decider. It has been a hectic road for the teams to get to this point, but they now stand 180 minutes away from glory. In this episode of The COSAFA Show, we hear from the South Africa stand-in coach Morena Ramoreboli, Horacio Goncalves from Mozambique and Eswatini tactician Dominic Kunene ahead of the Last 4 clashes. But while some teams celebrate, for others there was bitter disappointment, not least defending champions Zambia and six-times winners Zimbabwe. We will hear from Chipolopolo coach Micho Sredojevic about his team’s surprise early exit, and what that may mean for the future, and also from Zimbabwe tactician Zdravko Logarušić, who admits he “expected better” from his team. Saturday will also see the final of the CAF Champions League played as Kaizer Chiefs take on giants Al Ahly in Casablanca. Chiefs forward Khama Billiat could come up against his former coach Pitso Mosimane, who he won the Champions League with in 2016 while in the colours of Mamelodi Sundowns. “We have to be perfect in the final and make sure we stick to the plan the coach [Stuart Baxter] is showing us in training,” Billiat says. “We believe it will give us the right result. “But at the same time we need to not forgot what the coach is saying, that it will not be easy, we are facing a good side, we can only give it away if we don’t apply certain things that can make a difference in a game. “Which is being in the right place and managing the space [they give to Ahly]. We know we are just 90 minutes away from the glory.

Senegal will feature in the 2021 COSAFA Cup as a guest nation but are determined to take home the trophy when the tournament is played in Nelson Mandela Bay from July 6-18. The west Africans have been drawn in Group C along with six-time winners Zimbabwe, Mozambique and 2015 champions Namibia, with only the top team guaranteed a place in the semifinals. There will be no Sadio Mane or Idrissa Gueye in their side, but instead a group a young, hungry players from the Senegalese domestic league, and their Head of Delegation for the trip, Sam Diatta, says they have just one goal in mind for their visit to South Africa.

"A guest should be hungry when they come to your place and we are definitely hungry," Diatta tells The COSAFA Show. "We like these kinds of situations, being invited and then to go and take the trophy. We are not coming as tourists, we are coming to fight and play.

"We want to show that no matter the players we bring, we will show the image of Senegal. And in Senegal, talent is not a question, we have so many talented players (in the local league).

"You could bring even four teams to South Africa and each would represent the country (well) in that tournament. We are going as a hungry team to show people we can do something good.

"We are going to play good football and fight to take the trophy."

In this episode of The COSAFA Show, we also chat to Dr Thulani Ngwenya, who is head of the medical department at the South African Football Association and a driving force in implementing world-class ‘return to play’ COVID-19 regulations for tournaments.

He explains how a competition like the COSAFA Cup can safely be staged during the third wave of infections South Africa is experiencing.

We also hear from Nelson Mandela Bay Deputy Mayor Luxolo Namette as he shares his thoughts on the competition and what it means for the Friendly City to host major sporting events such as this one.