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Harare Bureau

THE venue for the 2019 edition of the Cosafa Senior Tournament scheduled from May 25 to June 8 2019 remains undecided. 

Zifa is now in breach of its hosting agreement signed by Zifa late in January 2019, and returned to Cosafa. 

Following a board meeting convened on March 9 in Zimbabwe, Zifa reconfirmed its commitment to hosting the tournament in Zimbabwe, irrespective of whether they received government funding and guarantees.

Zifa management committed to presenting to Cosafa written confirmation of this decision no later than March 25. 

Unfortunately they failed to deliver on the nominated deadline, which has left Cosafa with no recourse other than to enforce its disciplinary procedures, which process calls for Zifa to attend a disciplinary hearing scheduled for April 4 in Johannesburg. The hearing will be handled by Cosafa’s independent judicial body and the outcome and punitive action will be handed down within 48 hours of the hearing.

Cosafa is particularly disturbed by the management of the process by Zifa as 2019 is a critically pivotal year for football in the Sub Saharan region. For the first time in 21 years, five Cosafa member countries have qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations, including Zimbabwe’s celebrated Warriors. 

The Cosafa senior tournament has consistently proved to be a vibrant platform of opportunity for all competing countries, and in 2019 has become a key factor in pre-Afcon preparation for the successful qualifiers, with coaches and team management planning to use the Cosafa tournament to fine tune their training prior to the Afcon June 21 kick-off.

Cosafa remains hopeful that Zifa will remedy the current situation prior to the disciplinary committee hearing on April 4.