Angola to host Cosafa Challenge
Angola to host Cosafa Challenge
Posted: 2010-08-18 15:38
The 14th edition of the annual Cosafa Senior Challenge will be held in Angola from November 13-27 this year.
The tournament will be hosted by the Angolan Football Federation together with the Angolan government, and will take place in the cities of Benguela and Lubango, centres which hosted matches during the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in January.
Cosafa reached an agreement for the hosting of the southern African championship with the Angolan Minister of Youth and Sports, Gonçalves Muandumba, in Luanda last week.
This year’s event will be played against the backdrop of Angola's cele-brations of 35 years of independence, with the government choosing to include the prestigious event on their calendar of festivities to show its support for football in the region.
"We are delighted that Angola has taken up the challenge and shown such excellent support for the region by agreeing to host the 2010 Cosafa Senior Challenge.
"We are pleased to be able to take the tournament to such a wonderful part of our region, and at the same time give the Angolan provinces of Benguela and Huíla additional exposure for the first-class facilities which they built for the Nations Cup," said the President of Cosafa Suketu Patel.
The format of the 2010 Challenge will see two groups of four teams play in a round-robin format in the first round. The sides will be determined using the Fifa world rankings to select the eight lowest positioned nations in the Cosafa region.
The top team in each pool will advance to the quarter-finals, where they will be joined by the six top-ranked nations in southern Africa, again according to the Fifa world rankings.
The tournament then continues in a knockout format, with the final to be held in Benguela on November 27.
Zimbabwe are the current holders of the title after they beat Zambia 3-1 on home soil in the 2009 Final, while Angola will be looking to build on their quarterfinal finish in that competition this time round.
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