A three-year agreement between COSAFA and the KZN government to host the COSAFA Tournaments in eThekwini ended last year. Here is the update on where the senior men’s regional tournament could be heading this year.
In the past three years, three COSAFA tournaments were staged in Durban each year – the COSAFA Cup Men’s Tournament, the COSAFA Women’s Champions League Tournament [CAF WCL qualifiers] and the COSAFA Beach Soccer Tournament.
Last year, SAFA expressed its displeasure with the regional football mother body hosting its tournaments in the country without SA bidding.
However, the two organisations later found common ground on the matter in a meeting that was held in May where “collaboration between the two was established”.
Speaking to FARPost, COSAFA Executive Director Susan Destombes revealed that they are currently in discussions with the KZN government for a possible renewal of the contract.
Should they agree on a new deal, eThekwini Municipality could host COSAFA tournaments for the fourth consecutive year.
While she spoke out about the struggles they face when searching for the hosts, she also expressed gratitude to the KZN province for having availed itself to host their tournaments in recent years.
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“We are in discussion with them [KZN government] to renew our contract and we will see how that plays out,” Destombes told FARPost.
“Our biggest challenge normally is finding hosts for our tournaments, we like to spread them around but we’ve had a very good and fruitful relationship with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.
“And this is why we have had the senior tournaments, Women’s Champions League and the Beach [tournament] here for the last three years.
“The senior woman [tournament] has been in Port Elizabeth for some years. Our challenge is really securing hosts and encouraging our football associations to step up and hosts because there are many benefits to hosting a competition.”
The 2023 Beach Soccer Championship is currently ongoing in Durban and will conclude with the final on 23 March.
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