2020 COSAFA Under-17 Championship

The 2020 COSAFA Under-17 Championship is the 9th edition of the COSAFA U-17 Championship, a football tournament organized by the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (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,^[2] which in turn is the qualifier for the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup and will be played on November 19–29^[3] in Nelson Mandela Bay and the two finalists of the tournament will be representing COSAFA in the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.^[2][3] Initially, it was planned to be played in Malawi in July^[4][5] 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, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini) were disqualified for using over-aged players.^[6]

2020 COSAFA Under-17 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	South Africa
Dates	19–29 November 2020
Teams	4
Final positions
Champions	South Africa (3rd title)
Runners-up	Zambia
Third place	Angola
Fourth place	Malawi
Tournament statistics
Matches played	8
Goals scored	32 (4 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Joseph Banda[1]
Best player(s)	Mduduzi Shabalala[1]
Best goalkeeper	Eric Makungu[1]
Fair play award	Zambia[1]
← 2019 2021 →

Participating teams

Last year's runners-up Mozambique were meant to be the 9th nation to participate,^[7] but in the end 8 of the 14 COSAFA teams entered to compete for this year's trophy. After the first round of games four teams were expelled due to cheating, namely:

•  Comoros
•  Zimbabwe
•  Botswana
•  Eswatini

So the tournament restarted with the following genuine combatants:

•  Angola
•  Malawi
•  South Africa (Hosts)
•  Zambia (Defending champions)

Match Officials

Referees Audrick Nkole (Zambia) (Ms) Vistoria Nuusiku Shangula (Namibia) Godfrey Nkhakananga (Malawi) Thulani Sibandze (Eswatini) 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 (Eswatini) Venestancio Cossa (Mozambique) Tafadzwa Nkala (Zimbabwe) Lucky Kegakologetswe (Botswana) Shaun Siza Dlangamandla (Lesotho)

Group stage

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia (H)	3	3	0	0	9	3	+6	9	2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations
2	South Africa	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
3	Angola	3	1	0	2	9	5	+4	3
4	Malawi	3	0	1	2	5	15	−10	1

Source: COSAFA
Rules for classification: Group tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

22 November 2020 (2020-11-22)

12:30

Angola	1–2	Zambia
Lopes 90+3'	Report	Majapa 51' Ng’ambi 64' (pen.)

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Tshepo Gobagoba (Botswana)

22 November 2020 (2020-11-22)

15:30

South Africa	2–2	Malawi
Shabalala 46' Mahlangu 87'	Report	Zakeyu 36' Banda 65'

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Thanks Nyahuye (Zimbabwe)

---

24 November 2020 (2020-11-24)

12:30

South Africa	2–1	Angola
Shabalala 45+2' Francis 61'	Report	Kossi 56'

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Lawrence Zimondi (Zimbabwe)

24 November 2020 (2020-11-24)

15:30

Zambia	6–2	Malawi
Banda 11', 44', 49' Ng’ambi 16' Majapa 47' Khumalo 84'	Report	Mphasi 58', 72'

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Artur Alfinar (Mozambique)

---

26 November 2020 (2020-11-26)

15:30

Malawi	1–7	Angola
Zakeyu 80'	Report	Domingos 30' Hequele 40', 42', 67' (pen.) Canji 82' Cucao 90+1' Inga 90+4'

Westbourne Oval Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Luxolo Badi (South Africa)

26 November 2020 (2020-11-26)

15:30

Zambia	1–0	South Africa
Banda 84'	Report

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Thulani Sibandze (Eswatini)

Third place match

29 November 2020 (2020-11-29)

10:00

Angola	2–1	Malawi
Kossi 9' Hequele 41'	Report	Lameck 1'

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Vistoria Shangula (Namibia)

Final

29 November 2020 (2020-11-29)

15:00

Zambia	1–1	South Africa
Banda 2' (pen.)	Report	Mahlangu 14' (pen.)
Penalties
Chaiwa Banda Majapa Ng’ambi	2–4	Sishi Mgiba Phalane Dopolo Dithejane

Gelvandale Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay

Referee: Artur Alfinar (Mozambique)

Qualification for CAF Cup of Nations

The two finalists of the tournament will qualify for the 2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations. Qualified nations:

Nation	Previous participation	Best result
Zambia	2015	Group Stage
South Africa	2005, 2007, 2015	Silver medalists

Champion

2020 COSAFA Under-17 champion
South Africa Third title

Top Scorers

Representing	Player	Goals
	Joseph Banda	5
	Custódio Hequele	4

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^[1][8]

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.

Comoros, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, 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 2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations) and the bottom two qualify for the bronze medal game.^[9][10]

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.^[11]

Top seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2
Zambia (2019 Champions)  South Africa (Hosts)	Angola  Botswana  Malawi	Eswatini  Comoros  Zimbabwe

Abandoned Group stage

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Africa (H)	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	3	Semi-finals
2	Angola	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
3	Zimbabwe (D)	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
4	Eswatini (D)	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	0

Updated to match(es) played on November 19. Source: COSAFA.com
(D) Disqualified; (H) Hosts

19 November 2020 (2020-11-19)

12:30

Zimbabwe	1–1	Angola
Chiwashira 5' (pen.)	Report	Lopes 45' (pen.)

Gelvandale Stadium

Referee: Vistoria Nuusiku Shangula (Namibia)

19 November 2020 (2020-11-19)

15:30

South Africa	2–0	Eswatini
Mahlangu 38' Phalane 78' (pen.)	Report

Gelvandale Stadium

Referee: Audrick Nkole (Zambia)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	3	Semi-finals
2	Botswana (D)	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	1
3	Malawi	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	1	Semi-finals
4	Comoros (D)	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	0

Updated to match(es) played on November 20. Source: COSAFA.com
(D) Disqualified

20 November 2020 (2020-11-20)

12:30

Malawi	2–2	Botswana
Mapulanga 12' Chiwanda 90'	Report	Thlowe 45+2' Kgaolo 82'

Gelvandale Stadium

Referee: Luxolo Badi (South Africa)

20 November 2020 (2020-11-20)

15:30

Zambia	2–0	Comoros
Mumba 31' Banda ?'	Report

Gelvandale Stadium

Referee: Thulani Sibandze (Eswatini)

Abandoned Knockout stage

	Semi-finals				Final
	27 November – Gelvandale Stadium
	Group B winner
					29 November – Gelvandale Stadium
	Group A runners-up
	27 November – Gelvandale Stadium
	Group A winner
	Group B runners-up
					Third place
					29 November – Gelvandale Stadium