It’s E50 000 for Blackball champs

“AAPA (All Africa Pool Association) has officially announced the games along with exciting prizes of up to E250 000. The champions, which we can be, take home E50 000,” ECSA President Muntu Dlamini said.

He said they were still pushing ahead with preparations and to their advantage, the AAPA tournament is in the same month as the Hawley Cup, also set for SA from October 16-23.

The Blackball Championships start on October 11-15 at MonteCasino, same venue for the Hawley Cup, which also has a E250 000 prize package and open to all nations. The inaugural Hawley Cup is in honour of Peter Hawley for his contribution to Blackball.

The E50 000 champions’ prize is win by men while the same amount is in place for the ladies. There will also be singles with the prizes for men and ladies set at E20 000 for the champions.

“Greetings, as the excitement of the championship engulfs us, we must all be reminded of how big an opportunity this is for Africa to stamp its authority in the Blackball world. The poster says 16 countries, so we urge all nations to do what it takes to be a part of this historic event. AAPA is available to assist any nation where possible so do let us know what we can do to help.

“As the Hawley Cup follows after, it will be an opportunity to also meet some of the IPA players. Let’s set the tone for a future we want in our sport for Africa and the world at large. I leave you with the Zambian saying: Zambia (Africa) Ku_ Chalo (to the world),” read an AAP statement as shared by ECSA.

Meanwhile, all 16 participating countries must have confirmed by June 10, which is deadline day for entries to the Johannesburg bound Africa showpiece.

PRIZES:

Men and Women National Teams 1st - E50 000 2nd - E25 000 3rd - E10 000

Singles Men and Women 1st - E20 000 2nd - E13 000 3rd - E7 000

AmaZulu ............ 0 Swallows ............ 2

Sandile 7th, 50th IETERMARITZBURG – Mbabane Swallows still got their international sting as they stunned South Africa’s (SA) DStv Premiership side AmaZulu with a 2-0 win in a match that was played here yesterday.

They are well known throughout Africa and high ranking in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) standings among Eswatini ranked teams for their consecutive group stage finish in both the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup in 2017 and 2018.

They continued with their good international feat yesterday against a weakened AmaZulu side, who only used five of their elite squad players blended with fringe players. Goals in each half by marksman Sandile Hlatjwako were enough to steer the Caleb Ngwenya-coached team to win the Africa Day Cup, in an entertaining International friendly match which was witnessed by hundreds of supporters from AmaZulu and

PSandile Hlatjwako (Mbabane Swallows) - The Mbabane Swallows striker proved to be the deciding factor in the game and was clinical in front of goal, scoring both goals for his side through yet another strong contender in Philiso Newman, who provided the two assists.

Umkhonto KaShaka.

Swallows honoured the KwaZulu-Natal Province invite early in the week and did not disappoint despite having failed to achieve much locally as they finished the MTN Premier League 2022/23 campaign on third and without CAF interclub competition qualification.

Performance

Umkhonto KaShaka ended the season a fortnight ago against Manzini Sea Birds with the same margin as their AmaZulu win. AmaZulu, on the other hand, finished the campaign with a disappointing performance, losing 4-0 to Orlando Pirates who get into the Nedbank Cup final action today against Sekhukhune United.

Meanwhile, the last time Swallows and AmaZulu met in an international friendly game before yesterday was in 2019. It ended goalless that time in Eswatini, at Mayaluka Stadium in Big Bend.

Back to the game, AmaZulu were on the back foot in the opening stages with Swallows pressing them for an early goal. The visitors were rewarded just under 10 minutes as Hlatjwako struck with a beautiful header from close range, after youngster Philiso Newman’s timely cross into the box. However, the Durban-based ensemble was able to contain Swallows who were seeing most of the ball, especially in their danger zone through Banele ‘Pupu’ Sikhondze and Hlatjwako until the break.

Swallows continued to push AmaZulu with some high pressing football and eventually scored yet another early goal, which proved to seal a good win for the ‘Beautiful Birds’ after the restart. This time, they were on target five minutes into the second half after a couple of crosses into the box bore no fruit. Newman was again the provider with a brilliantly weighted cross for Hlatjwako to simply tap in from close range.

There was no return for AmaZulu from the 2-0 deficit as they ran out of time with their second string team failing to match Swallows. The day was also marked by performances from the celebrated SA music group Izingane Zoma, Dlala Thukzin and many others.

The winner of each group and the best second-placed teams will qualify for the semi-finals. This year’s edition will be played without the Plate finals. At least three teams or countries were seeded based on their CAF ranking and these were South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique. The three nations headed Groups A, B and C respectively as they are the regions’ best ranked teams.

The remaining nine teams were placed in three pots and they were based on the latest CAF Rankings too when the draw was done. The Dominic Kunene-led side will face the region’s best ranked teams in SA’s Bafana Bafana, who are ranked number one in COSAFA while occupying the 12th spot in CAF and they are on position 66 globally. Sihlangu and Bafana met in the 2021 edition in the semi-finals. SA won 1-0.

The country’s second opponents in Namibia’s Brave Warriors are also not an easy side as they were last year’s runners-up. They are ranked fourth, 12th and 106th in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA respectively. The least ranked team in the group is Botswana’s Zebras, who are occupying position 13, 46 and 152 in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA respectively.

Meanwhile, Sihlangu are ranked 11th, 42nd and 144 in COSAFA, CAF and FIFA respectively. Coach Kunene recently announced the squad that will be assigned for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers for the game against Togo. Sihlangu will be looking to reach the finals of the tournament for the first time, having reached the semi-finals on two occasions.

The Dominic Kunene charges secured a bronze medal in the 2021 edition after they were defeated by guest nation, Senegal in the quarter-finals. Senegal was also a guest nation in the previous edition, this time around COSAFA decided against the idea of having one.

Reacting to the draw, Coach Kunene acknowledged this was a tough draw for the country, but said it was all down to intensified preparations to do better than last year where Sihlangu lost in penalties to Senegal in the quarters.

“We will indeed face tough opponents but we will leave that mindset behind. We aim to do better compared to the previous years. With the fixture now, we will be able to develop the right mindset in the players beforehand. We also look on bolstering the tournaments’ preparations to match them,” the tactician said.

The fixtures are yet to be released by COSAFA. Kunene leads a squad that is without the country and COSAFA’s current’s top scorer Felix Badenhorst, least conceding and gifted Mbabane Highlanders goalkeeper Khanyakwezwe Shabalala and Justice Figuareido, among other stars he did not call up yet they were in good form. The squad is dominated by security forces teams as has been for a while since 2018.

COSAFA CUP GROUPS:

Group A

South Africa Namibia Eswatini

Botswana

Group B Zambia Malawi Seychelles Comoros

Country COSAFA

SouthAfrica 1 Namibia 4 Eswatini 11

Botswana 13

Group C Mozambique Angola Mauritius Lesotho

CAF 12 24

46

FIFA

66 106 144

152