South Africa to host CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier
The fourth staging of the CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier 2025/26 will take place in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from December 5-7, as a record 11 Boys’ and Girls’ teams vie to represent the region on the continental stage.
Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe will all be represented, with teams made up of the best players from their national qualifiers.
It means the best of the young schools’ talent in the region will be on show, and this year’s competition will no doubt add to what has been an exceptionally high standard over the last three years.
COSAFA already has a CAF African Schools Football Championship winner after South Africa won the Girls’ continental competition at the 2024 finals held in Zanzibar. South Africa were also runners-up in the Boys’ competition in 2023 via their entrant, Clapham High School.
The draw for both the Boys’ and Girls’ competitions will be made in Stellenbosch shortly before the event.
The field this year is a big step up from the inaugural event that was played in Malawi in October 2022. That competition had five Girls’ sides and was won by South African school Edendale Technical.
There were six teams in the Boys’ competition, and Clapham High School from South Africa were victorious there too.
The format moved away from individual schools in 2023 when the qualifiers were staged in Harare, but South Africa prevailed in the Boys’ competition with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Malawi in the decider, while the Girls’ team beat Botswana to make it another double for the country.
Walvis Bay played host to the qualifiers in 2024, and again it was a South African double.
Their Boys edged Zambia on penalties in the final, while the Girls beat Malawi 3–1 in their decider.
The CAF African Schools Football Championship has been spearheaded by Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) President Dr Patrice Motsepe, with the Motsepe Foundation providing a USD 10-million investment into the competition.
The current holders of the continental title in the Boys’ competition are Tanzania, while the Girls’ champions are Ghana, who beat Uganda in the decider. The finals were played in Accra, Ghana, and the winners each walked away with USD 300,000 in prize money.
The runners-up received USD 200,000, while the bronze medallists took home USD 150,000.
This prize money is to be used for infrastructure development at schools, and many have invested in educational and sporting aids for their learners.
At a Zonal Union level, there is also prize money on offer.
The winners of the CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier this year will receive USD 100,000, with the runners-up taking home USD 75,000, and the bronze medallists getting USD 50,000.
As much as there is focus on what happens on the pitch, there will also be several initiatives off it, including Safeguarding workshops for youngsters, a Young Reporters Programme, and Referee and Coaching workshops.
“Schools football is at the heart of the long-term development and growth of African football. One of the best investments that we can make to ensure that African football is among the best in the world is to invest in schools football and football infrastructure for boys and girls at school, amateur, and professional level,” Dr Motsepe said.
