Cosafa inspects Under-17 hosting facilities
Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) yesterday started inspecting facilities hosting the Under-17 Youth Championship which kicks off this Friday in Blantyre.
The delegation led by Cosafa deputy general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda toured facilities at the main venue Mpira Stadium and Kamuzu Stadium and will wrap up the exercise today.
After yesterday’s exercise, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka was confident that the Local Organising Committee (LOC) will get a vote of confidence from Cosafa.
“I would like to say that we are excited to host the tournament and everything is in place and we can’t wait for the games to start.
“After the inspections, we will meet with Cosafa to finalise the whole programme of the event,” he said.
Meanwhile, participating teams and officials have started arriving in the country ahead of the tournament’s kick-off.
Comoros, who are taking part in the tournament for the first time, were the first team to arrive via Chileka International Airport yesterday afternoon.
Cosafa general secretary and tournament director Susan Destombes will arrive tomorrow while Cosafa president Phillip Chiyangwa and Cosafa competitions chairperson Timothy Shongwe will jet in before the knockout stages next week
Meawhile, Malawi will benefit from hosting the tournament as Nyirenda said the regional governing body would like to buid the capacity of stakeholders as part of hosting the tournament.
“We would like to leave a legacy after the 2019 Under-17 Youth Championship,” he said.
Nyirenda said there will be a media workshop to be facilitated by Mark Gleeson, Nick Said and Lynda Greef from October 19.
