THE Cosafa Cup is set to take place on South African soil once again.
This is music to the ears of local fans who will have some international football to feast on at the end of the current Absa Premiership season.
The Cosafa region is set to have five representatives in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Egypt, which bodes well for the region.
The tournament was initially set to take place in Zimbabwe from 25 May to 8 June but they pulled out, frustrating the organisers as they had to find a new host.
Mzansi are no strangers to hosting the annual tournament, having done so no less than four times in the last five years.
It was hosted in the North West in 2015 and 2017, with last year’s edition in Limpopo.
The hosting province this time around has not yet been confirmed.
Significantly, this will come as perfect opportunity for Bafana Bafana and other teams from the Southern region who are Afcon-bound such as Angola, Namibia, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, to prepare for the finals in Egypt.
Bafana coach Stuart Baxter could be tempted to use as many of his regular Bafana stars as possible at this year’s Cosafa Cup with the aim to fine tune his outfit for the bigger test of the Afcon.
The Afcon tournament, which was expanded to 24-teams this year, will start on 21 June to 19 July.
During the Fifa Women’s World Cup Trophy Tour in Durban, Cosafa president, Philip Chiyanga, indicated to SunSport that the annual tournament will, in all likelihood, be heading to Mzansi once more.
“The Cosafa Cup is likely to be played here in South Africa,” said Chiyanga.
“Please talk to Danny Jordaan (Safa president) to get more information. Ask him, don’t waste time,” said Chiyanga.
South Africa, who have won this cup four times, last lifted the trophy in 2016 when it was held in Namibia.
The then coach Shakes Mashaba’s side defeated the hosts in Windhoek in the final.
