The much-anticipated draw for the 2022 COSAFA Cup to be staged in Durban next month will take place at the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday, June 14.
The tournament, which runs from July 5-17, will once again feature last year's beaten finalists Senegal as the west African guest nation return to try and turn silver into gold.
You will be able to watch the draw LIVE on www.cosafa.tv from 11h00 CAT.
The regional championship will be contested for the 21st time having made its debut in 1997 and will this year feature 13 of the 14 COSAFA nations. Only Zimbabwe will be missing due to their ongoing FIFA suspension.
There will be two phases to the draw. The first sees the eight lowest positioned sides according to the latest FIFA Rankings contesting a first round pool stage. They will be split into two groups with four sides each.
The top teams in each pool advance to the quarterfinals, where they join by the six higher ranked sides. The draw for this round will also be completed on Tuesday.
The competition continues in a knockout format after that, with the losing quarterfinalists to play in the Plate tournament.
The seeded teams for the first pool stage are Malawi, Angola, Comoros Islands and Lesotho, while the unseeded sides are Botswana, Eswatini, Mauritius and Seychelles. They will be drawn one by one in Groups A and B until those are full.
The draw will then switch to the quarterfinals, where the four seeded sides are Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Madagascar. The other teams that enter at this stage are Namibia and Mozambique, with the final two teams represented by the winners of Groups A and B.
The seeded sides in the quarterfinals cannot play each other in this round, so there will be no repeat of last season's final where South Africa beat Senegal on penalties.
The tournament will be excellent preparation for both the African Nations Championship and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that will be played over the next few months.
The 20 previous editions of the competition have seen some great performances and incredible games that have been written into the folklore of Southern African football, but only five nations can claim to have lifted the coveted trophy.
Zimbabwe (six wins) lead the way, followed by Zambia, South Africa (five each), Angola (three) and Namibia (one).
Mozambique, Malawi and Botswana have all twice been finalists, but ended up on the losing side on both occasions. Lesotho are the only other team to reach the decider.
Durban will host the competition for the second time have been the perfect stage for the 2019 even that was won by Zambia as they defeated Botswana in the decider.
We are excited to be able to welcome fans and the media back for this year's competition after they missed out in 2021 due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While that pandemic is still with us, sporting events in South Africa may have supporters attend up to a maximum of 50% of the venue capacity. Fans must also either be fully vaccinated or produce a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours.
FIRST ROUND POOL STAGE DRAW
Seeded teams
Malawi
Angola
Comoros
Lesotho
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Unseeded teams
Botswana
Eswatini
Mauritius
Seychelles
QUARTERFINAL DRAW
Seeded teams
Senegal
South Africa
Zambia
Madagascar
Unseeded teams
Namibia
Mozambique
Winner Group A
Winner Group B
