Council for Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) has launched the Bridging the Gap initiative as the council aims to raise the standards of football within the region.
The council launched the initiative in South Africa, Johannesburg during the Technical Study Group Symposium which started on Thursday, 23 May 2024.
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President Artur de Almeida e Silva urged Member Associations to continue to push for progress on and off the pitch as they aim to increase the number of teams that qualify for major international tournaments.
“COSAFA nations have shown great progress in men’s and women’s football in the last 12 months, qualifying for major tournaments and improving results, but the potential for further growth is there,” President Artur said.
Former Football Association of Malawi, Walter Nyamilandu who is one of the executive members of the council, said the ultimate goal of the symposium is to discuss how the Council can increase the number of teams competing at major International tournaments.
“The ultimate goal is to increase the number of teams that qualify for the World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations. It’s high time that we reversed the trend of playing second fiddle to West and North African teams.
“We need to seize the opportunity by taking advantage of the expanded number of teams that will participate in these prestigious tournaments,” he said.
During the last African Cup of Nations, one of the members of Cosafa, South Africa reached the semi-finals of the tournament before losing to Nigeria on penalties.
Zambia, Mozambique, and Angola all qualified for the recent edition of the AFCON. COSAFA was formed in 1983 in Malawi. The 14 member countries of COSAFA are Angola, Botswana, Comores, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Associate Member Reunion.
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