2025 COSAFA Women's Championship

Hollywoodbets COSAFA
Women's Championship 2025
Tournament details
Host countrySouth Africa
CityPolokwane
Dates18 February – 1 March 2026
Teams11 (from 1 sub-confederation)
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The 2025 COSAFA Women's Championship, officially known as the 2025 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women's Championship for sponsorship purposes, is set to be the thirteenth edition of the COSAFA Women's Championship, the annual international women's association football championship was contested by the women's national teams of Southern Africa. Initially set to be held in the fall of 2025, the tournament was pushed to early 2026 due to the host's unavailability. South Africa will host the tournament for the eighth straight edition from 18 February to 1 March 2026.[1][2]

Zambia are the defending champions, having won their second title after beating South Africa 4–3 on penalties following a scoreless draw.[3]

Postponement and Host selection

By mid-October 2025, close to the initial scheduled period for the tournament to take place, it was announced that South Africa, which had hosted the previous seven editions, were not willing to host the tournament for an eighth time.[4] With no other country willing to step in as host, COSAFA announced the postponement of the 2025 edition to the early quarter of 2026.[5] With the tournament now pushed to early 2026, ahead of WAFCON taking place in March, the championship will serve as a preparation competition for the three regional body members that had qualified for the continental finals.[6] On 23 January 2026, COSAFA confirmed that South Africa would host the tournament for an eighth time, providing fine-tuning ahead of the continent's finals.[7]

Location and Venues

The 2025 edition will be hosted in Polokwane, marking the city's first time hosting the tournament among South Africa's eight editions as host.

The following 3 venues will be used for the tournament:

Polokwane
Seshego Stadium Old Peter Mokaba Stadium New Peter Mokaba Stadium
Capacity: 15,000 Capacity: 15,000 Capacity: 45,500

Teams

Pariticpating teams

Eligibility for participation in the championship is open to all 14 COSAFA members; however, teams outside the regional body may also be eligible if they receive an invitation.

On 4 February 2026, COSAFA announced that 11 countries would participate in the 2025 edition. Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, all of which participated in 2024, decided not to participate in this edition.

Note: All appearance statistics exclude the 2008 edition.

Team App Last
appearance 		Previous best performance FIFA ranking
December 2025 		Ref.
 Angola 8th 2024 Runners-up (2008) 155 [8]
 Botswana 11th 2024 Runners-up (2020) 141 [8]
 Eswatini 11th 2024 Group stage (2002, 2006, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) 184 [9][8]
 Lesotho 10th 2024 Group stage (2002, 2006, 2011, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024) 177 [10]
 Madagascar 6th 2024 Group stage (2017, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024) 192
 Malawi 12th 2024 Champions (2023) 153 [11]
 Mozambique 11th 2024 Third place (2023) 172
 Namibia 9th 2024 Runners-up (2006) 124
 South Africa 12th 2024 Champions (2002, 2006, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) 55
 Zambia 12th 2024 Champions (2022, 2024) 64 [12]
 Zimbabwe 11th 2024 Champions (2011) 129 [13]

Squads

Draw

The final group stage draw took place in Polokwane on 4 February 2026 at 11:00 SAST (UTC+2).[14][15]

The top three teams from the previous tournament were automatically seeded into the first positions of Groups A–C. Hosts South Africa were placed in A1, defending champions Zambia in B1, and Mozambique in C1. The remaining teams were allocated to two pots for the draw:

Pot 1 Pot 2
 Malawi
 Namibia
 Botswana 		 Zimbabwe
 Madagascar
 Eswatini
 Lesotho
 Angola

Group stage

All times are local, SAST (UTC+2). The match schedule was announced by COSAFA on 5 February 2026.[16]

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  South Africa (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to knockout stage
2  Malawi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Possible knockout stage
3  Lesotho 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4  Angola 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played: 18 February 2026. Source: COSAFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Lesotho v Angola
South Africa v Malawi
Malawi v Lesotho
South Africa v Angola
Angola v Malawi
South Africa v Lesotho

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Zambia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to knockout stage
2  Botswana 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Possible knockout stage
3  Eswatini 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4  Zimbabwe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played: 19 February 2026. Source: COSAFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Eswatini v Zimbabwe
Zambia v Botswana
Botswana v Eswatini
Zambia v Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe v Botswana
Zambia v Eswatini

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mozambique 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to knockout stage
2  Namibia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Possible knockout stage
3  Madagascar 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played: 20 February 2026. Source: COSAFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Mozambique v Namibia
Namibia v Madagascar
Mozambique v Madagascar

Ranking of second-place teams

Due to groups having a different number of teams, the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 A 2A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to knockout stage
2 B 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 C 2C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played: 18 February 2026. Source: COSAFA

Knockout stage

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
27 February – Polokwane
 
 
Winner Group B
 
1 March – Polokwane
 
Winner Group C
 
Winner SF1
 
27 February – Polokwane
 
Winner SF2
 
Winner Group A
 
 
Best second-placed team
 
3rd place playoff
 
 
1 March – Polokwane
 
 
Loser SF1
 
 
Loser SF2

Semi-finals

Winner BvWinner C
Winner AvBest 2nd placed team

Third place play-off

Loser M16vLoser M17

Final

Winner M16vWinner M17

Broadcasting rights

Country Broadcaster Ref.
World FIFA+ [17]
COSAFA on YouTube [17]

References

  1. ^ "COSAFA announces dates for Women's tournaments". kick442.com. 24 January 2026. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  2. ^ Zondi, Asanda (3 February 2025). "COSAFA Women's Championship 2026 kicks off in SA". channelafrica.co.za. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  3. ^ Willis, Seth (2 November 2024). "Champions of Southern Africa! Zambia's Copper Queens beat Banyana Banyana to clinch 2024 Cosafa Women's Championship". Goal. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  4. ^ Mbabala, John (21 October 2025). "South Africa Gives Up Hosting of COSAFA Women's Championship". bolanews.co. Retrieved 1 February 2026.
  5. ^ Goodman, Tivana (21 October 2025). "COSAFA postpones 2025 Women's Championship due to hosting challenges". channelafrica.co.za. Retrieved 1 February 2026.
  6. ^ Fakudze, Machawe (7 January 2026). "COSAFA Women's Championship still without a home". Times of Eswatini. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  7. ^ "COSAFA Women's Championship to provide fine-tune for WAFCON". COSAFA. 23 January 2026. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b c "Angola, Botswana, Eswatini HOLLYWOODBETS COSAFA Women's Championship Profiles". COSAFA. 9 February 2026. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  9. ^ Fakudze, Machawe (23 January 2026). "COSAFA Women's Champs kick off road to Brazil". Times of Eswatini. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  10. ^ "Mehalalitoe back at work on Monday ahead of COSAFA tourney". africatopsports.com. 18 January 2026. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  11. ^ "Fazili Names 32 for Scorchers COSAFA Championship Preparations". Lilongwe: Football Association of Malawi. 30 January 2026. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  12. ^ Sichula, Augustine (31 January 2026). "Football Association of Zambia confirms Copper Queens' participation in 2026 COSAFA championship". zambiamonitor.com. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  13. ^ "ZIFA names Might Warriors provisional squad for 2026 Women's COSAFA". newzimbabwe.com. 27 January 2026. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  14. ^ "HOLLYWOODBETS COSAFA Women's Championship 2025 to be staged in Polokwane". COSAFA. 4 February 2026. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  15. ^ "Draw is in…". neweralive.na. 4 February 2026. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  16. ^ "Fixtures revealed for Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women Championship". The Namibian. 5 February 2026. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  17. ^ a b Sob, Willis (4 February 2026). "COSAFA Women's Championship 2025: Groups, Predictions and where to watch". afrik-foot.com. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
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