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MBABANE – “We are at 99 per cent in terms of preparations for the COSAFA Under-20 games.”
This was revealed by Mashumi Shongwe, who is Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the Council of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) Men’s Under-20 Championship. He was speaking on Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services (EBIS 1) Sports Show yesterday.
The country will be hosting the 10-day tournament, billed to start this coming weekend after it was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted travelling among countries.
Shongwe said the preparations were at an advanced stage, as some COSAFA top officials were already in the country alongside technical officials who were already training referees who would officiate in the games. “There are a lot of activities that are associated with the hosting of such a big tournament and the stadia are ready for the games from Friday as Eswatini will play against Botswana,” Shongwe said.
He said as the chairman of the LOC, his was to urge the nation to support the games.
“Such games are hosted in different countries, but of late most were held in South Africa and with the chance that we was given to emaSwati, let us show that we are capable of hosting high standard games such as those for COSAFA,” he said.
He also urged the nation to cascade to both the Mavuso Sports Centre and Lobamba National Stadium in numbers to watch the games.
Shongwe further said the games were free, but for the purpose of control COSAFA would issue free entry tickets, which they would communicate in due course on how to get them.
He finally thanked Inyatsi Group of companies as well as Eswatini Mobile for partnering with COSAFA for the games. The Inyatsi Group of companies forked out E2million for the games, while the latter would be the communication partner for the games.
There are 12 countries that will be participating in the games, which were last won by Mozambique after beating Namibia by a lone goal in 2020. This tournament will serve as qualifiers for the TOTALEnergies Under-20 AFCON 2023 finals to be held in Ivory Coast.