South Africa seek hat-trick of titles at the 2024 CAF ASFC Qualifier
South Africa will seek to keep up their 100% record at the CAF African Schools Football Championship | COSAFA Qualifier when they compete at the latest tournament in Walvis Bay, Namibia from October 11-13.
South Africa have won both the Boys and Girls competitions at the past two qualifiers played in Malawi and Zimbabwe, and will likely be the team to beat again this year.
They were represented by Clapham High School in 2022, which had several Under-15 players from the Mamelodi Sundowns club in their team.
Clapham played home side Salima Secondary School in the final and won 1-0 to lift the trophy, The pair had played to a 1-1 draw in the group stages of the inaugural event but the South Africans came out on top second time round.
They would go on to compete in the continental finals and this time Clapham had to settle for silver on home soil in Durban as they were beaten by CS Ben Sekou Sylla from Guinea in the decider.
Edendale Technical School were South Africa’s representatives in the Girls competition in Malawi and they too came out on top. That tournament was played in a round-robin format and the side topped the pool with a full haul of 12 points from their four games.
The format changed in 2023 with teams made up of players from different schools able to represent their country at the zonal qualifiers in Harare.
The South African Boys side was made up mostly of players from the Ubuntu Academy in Cape Town, and the Girls with players from Edendale again.
South Africa took on Malawi again in the final and following a hard-fought 0-0 draw, claimed the penalty shoot-out 3-0 to take the title once more.
In the Girls competition they came up against Botswana and having dominated through the pool stages it was no surprise when they won 3-1.
There will be confidence they can repeat those feats this year, but also the competition is getting stronger and there will be plenty of teams looking to knock them off their perch.
Players for both the Boys and Girls teams will have been scouted from a FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) Interprovincial tournament that was held last month in Gauteng.
The draw for the eight-team tournament will be made in Walvis Bay ahead of the competition.
SOUTH AFRICA’S PAST RESULTS
BOYS
2022: Winners
2023: Winners
GIRLS
2022: Winners
2023: Winners