E10M EFA BUDGET FOR COSAFA!

MBABANE – Hosting the COSAFA Under-20 Youth Championships will come at a huge cost for the Eswatini Football Association (EFA).

A sum of E10 million is needed by the football mother body to play hosts to the annual youth tournament. Eswatini last hosted the tournament in 1993, having previously hosted it in 1985. To accommodate all countries in playing hosts to the tournament, the Council Of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) resolved three years ago that the youth tournament would now be hosted on a rotational basis.

An informed source within the EFA Executive Committee confirmed that the budget for the COSAFA Youth Championships stands at E10 million. The budget issue was also reported during the EFA Retreat held over the weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn. “The biggest challenge is that the EFA has to get government’s buy-in and financial support. COSAFA will only be assisting with close to E7 million so there is a short-fall of about E3.5 million, which the EFA has to raise in order to be able to host the tournament,” the source said. EFA Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe could only confirm that the tournament would be hosted in Eswatini, but referred any queries on budgets to COSAFA.

Budget

“Due to the rotational basis, the tournament is coming to Eswatini, but I cannot comment on the budget. We have to respect COSAFA as they are the ones organising it and everything is being handled by them. We can’t comment on budget issues,” Radebe said. Chairman of the COSAFA Organising Committee Timothy Shongwe could only confirm that Eswatini was next country to host the tournament according to the rotational schedule and they had already discussed the budget issue at organisational level.

“The only thing left is for government to sign the hosting agreements and we are awaiting the EFA to conclude what they need to do on their part. Yes, according to the schedule, Eswatini is supposed to host the Under-20s in December. We are currently busy with preparations for the Region 5 Games in Lesotho,” Shongwe said. He said the football category under the Region 5 games was being handled by COSAFA. “We are managing the football component in the Region 5 Games  if all goes well, we will then come to Eswatini for the COSAFA Under-20,” he said.

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