COSAFA Under-20 Women’s Championship fact sheet

The COSAFA Under-20 Women’s Championship makes a welcome return to the calendar this year, one of five tournaments for female players that will be staged in the region in 2024.
Here is a quick recap on the tournament.

WHERE
Matches will be played at the University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus.

WHEN
The tournament runs from November 19-24. You can see the full fixture list here.

WHO IS PLAYING?
Hosts South Africa are joined in the five-team field by Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia.

WHAT IS THE FORMAT?
The teams face off in a round-robin format with three points for a win and one for a draw. The team with the most points after their four games will be declared the winner.

SEPARATING TEAMS ON THE TABLE
Group standings are decided in the first instance by the number of points a team has obtained in all games.

If two teams are level on points, then the first tiebreaker is number of points obtained in matches between them, ie the head-to-head rule.

If they cannot be separated, then the following are applied in this order until there is a clear front-runner.

  • The goal-difference in all group matches
  • Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
  • A Fair Play system based on the number of yellow and red cards obtained by each team. One point is allocated to a team per yellow card and two per red. The team with the fewest points advances
  • A drawing of lots conducted by the Organising Committee

If more than two teams finish on the same number of points, then the following is applied:

  • The greatest number of points obtained in the matches between the teams concerned
  • The goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned
  • The greatest number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned

If after applying criteria, two teams are still equal, the criteria are again applied to matches played between the two teams in question to determine the final ranking of the two teams. If this procedure does not produce a front-runner, the criteria listed below will be applied in this order:

  • The goals difference in all group matches
  • The highest number of goals scored in all group matches
  • A Fair Play system based as detailed above
  • A drawing of lots conducted by the Organising Committee

DISCIPLINARY
If a player collects two yellow cards at the tournament, they are automatically suspended for the next game. A player sent off will also automatically miss the next game. If a player receives two red cards in the tournament, they are suspended for the remainder of the competition.

SQUADS
Teams will be able to select a squad of 20 players for the tournament.

SUBSTITUTES
Coaches can now make up to five substitutions in a game, though these can only be done at a maximum of three different intervals. This gives coaches a greater chance to sway the game with tactics, while for players it potentially helps to limit the physical strain on them with matches coming thick and fast.

PAST WINNERS
The tournament has only been played once before under the COSAFA banner, which was in 2019 when Tanzania defeated Zambia 2-1 in the final.