WESLIANS GET SA ’DOWNS

MBABANE – It’s official.

Eswatini’s Manzini Wanderers Ladies will face South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in the inaugural Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Women Champions League. The hub side and Eswatini Women Football League champions last season, Wanderers, have been drawn against South Africa’s Sundowns, Lesotho’s Defence Force, Double Action from Botswana in group A. This is according to a draw which was held in Johannesburg yesterday. The competition, which will be hosted in South Africa, will commence on August 26 and end on September 4 this year. The country’s envoys will play Double Action Ladies from Botswana first on August 26 in a venue yet to be confirmed. Their next match will be two days later against Lesotho Defence Force before taking on the South African side, Sundowns, on August 30. They were drawn in group A of the seven-team tournament. Group B has Green Buffaloes Women FC (Zambia), Black Rhinos (Zimbabwe) and TURA Magic FC (Namibia). The two top teams by end of the point system group games will advance to the COSAFA Cup semis with the first placed team in each group meeting runners-up of the other group.

Finals

The winners will clash in the finals with the champions joining seven other teams from across the continent in the inaugural CAF Women Champions League. Manzini Wanderers Ladies team coach Bongani Makhukhula said COVID-19 had greatly disturbed their plans for the tournament. “We had to persuade about six of our players who had given up on football due to COVID-19, to return,” he said. He said that some of his players had already been implored to avail themselves for preparations. He, however, promised that they were going to represent the country well.

Qualifiers

This is the first-ever women club tournament for the region, which will act as qualifiers for the upcoming inaugural Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women Champions League to be played later this year. The first tournament will feature eight teams across the continent including the host nation. “This is a momentous day for us in the COSAFA region. This is something that we have had on our radar for a while, but it’s a great initiative from CAF to implement a Champions League competition and do the qualifiers at a Zonal level,” COSAFA General Secretary (GS) Sue Destombes said. Destombes continued to say they had seven teams taking part in 2021, but next year, “we hope to have all 14 of our member associations participating”. Destombes said this was just the start, but they were putting a peg in the ground.

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