Lesotho and Comoros will kick-off the 2019 COSAFA Men’s Under-17 Championship to be staged in Malawi from October 11-20 after the fixtures for the regional finals were released.

The pair will clash at the competition’s main venue, theKamuzu Stadium, on October 11 at 11h00 (GMT +2), following by another Group B fixture between Angola and Mozambique at 14h00.

The opening games in Group A will be played the following day as hosts Malawi tackle South Africa at 14h00 in a fantastic tie, which will follow a meeting between Zambia and Botswana at 11h00.

It is the start of 10 days of action that will culminated with the third-place play-off and grand final being played at the same Kamuzu Stadium on October 20.

The second venue to be used during the final round of pool stage matches, which are played simultaneously, is the Mpira Stadium.

Pool stage matches will be played every day between October 11-16, with three points awarded for a win and one for a draw.

The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals, which will both take place on October 18.

Angola are the defending champions after they lifted the title in Mauritius last year with a 1-0 victory in the final over South Africa.

Malawi will play host to the COSAFA Men’s Under-17 Championship for the first time and become the fourth host nation overall. South Africa and Mauritius (three each) have also staged the tournament before, along with Namibia.

South Africa are the only two-time winners of the tournament before, in 1994 and 2002, while Malawi claimed success in 2001. Zimbabwe lifted the title in 2007, Namibia were victorious in 2016 and Zambia in 2017 to go with Angola’s victory last year.