The Malawi National Football team will face Madagascar at the Wolfson Stadium on July 7 in their opening fixture of the 2021 COSAFA Cup.
According to the fixture released by COSAFA on Tuesday, the Flames will then host Comoros at the same venue on July 10 before facing defending champions Zambia in their last group stage match on July 13.
The 20th edition of the COSAFA tournament, which was initially planned to start on July 7 will now kick-off on July 6 with Group A matches involving Eswatini and Lesotho before hosts South Africa take on Botswana at Nelson Mandela bay Stadium.
Just like last year’s Women’s championship, U20 and U17 tournaments, the Men’s Senior Challenge Cup will be played behind closed doors and fans will follow the action live on SuperSport and Cosafa TV.
To ensure safety of all the stakeholders, COSAFA has created a bio-bubble environment with a mandatory Covid-19 negative certificate for everyone accessing it.
The 12 teams participating at the tournament had been placed in three groups and the three group winners and best second-placed team will battle it out in the semifinals.
Group A winners (South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Eswatini) will take on the best runner-up in the semis, while winners in Groups B (Zambia, Malawi, Comoros, Madagascar) will face the winners of Group C (Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique).
