Full field for COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup

Staff Writer | Thursday June 5, 2014 10:49

Ghana are expected to send a squad of players from its domestic league for the tournament that takes place from September 13 to 27.

COSAFA chief operations officer, Sue Destombes said that SAB Miller could not finance the tournament this time because of timing issues. The beer giant has been sponsoring the tournament through its beer brand, Castle.

Botswana will host the tournament for the first time. Previously, the country staged the COSAFA Under-20 tournament.

Zambia hosted and won the 2013 edition of the COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup.

The format of the 2014 competition will be the same as in Zambia last year, where two first round groups of four teams will each contest with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals with the six top seeded sides. Ghana will likely receive a bye into the quarterfinals as one of the seeded sides, according to FIFA rankings. As it stands, Botswana is guaranteed a quarterfinal berth as one of the top seeds because they are the third best-ranked team in the region, behind South Africa and Zambia.

The next FIFA rankings will be released on Friday. There will also be a Plate competition for the losing sides in the quarterfinals to give all teams the opportunity to play more than one match, COSAFA said.