Draw set for CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier in Stellenbosch
Excitement is building ahead of the draw for the CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier, which will be staged in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from 5–7 December 2025, bringing together the region’s next generation of young football talent.
A single draw will be conducted for both the Boys and Girls competitions in the Under-15 competition on Tuesday, 2 December at 15h00 CAT (13h00 GMT), providing a path to glory for the teams.
Ten Member Associations have confirmed their participation: Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
With only the winner of each of the Boys and Girls competitions advancing to the Continental Finals, it will be all to play for once the teams discover their path in the competition.
This year’s tournament will feature a three-group format, with Group A containing four teams and Groups B and C three teams each. The structure is designed to ensure competitive balance while rewarding countries that excelled in last year’s edition.
To maintain fairness and recognise past performance, three nations have been seeded directly into the top spots of each group.
Host nation South Africa leads Group A, with Zambia and Malawi heading Groups B and C respectively, in line with their strong results at the 2024 CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier in Walvis Bay, Namibia.
The remaining seven teams have been placed into two pots based on their 2024 rankings.
Pot 1 includes Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini, while Pot 2 contains Zimbabwe, Botswana, Comoros and Mozambique.
The draw will follow a clear and transparent sequence. First, teams from Pot 1 will be drawn to fill the second position in each group (A2, B2, C2).
Then, the first three teams drawn from Pot 2 will complete the third position in those groups (A3, B3, C3), finalising Groups B and C. The last remaining team from Pot 2 will be placed into A4, completing Group A.
Once the final ball is drawn, the path to glory will be laid out, setting up three days of exciting football where skill, discipline and development take centre stage.
The draw results will be revealed immediately after the ceremony on COSAFA’s social media platforms.
