Malawi Under-17 National Football Team is now in Group C of the Cosafa Under-17 Championship alongside neighbours and rivals Zambia following a fresh draw conducted yesterday.
Cosafa nullified the first draw to accommodate Zimbabwe’s late entry into the tournament to be played as part of the Region 5 Youth Games in Maseru, Lesotho from December 1-10.
Malawi and Zambia are in a three-member Group C alongside Seychelles.
Group A now has the hosts Lesotho as the top seeds alongside Zimbabwe, e-Swatini, formerly Swaziland, and Madagascar.
South Africa remain Group B top seeds with Angola, Botswana and Mauritius as the other pool members.
The three group winners and the best runners-up will qualify for the semi-finals.
Initially, the competition had two pools with the hosts in Group A alongside Zambia, e-Swatini, Mauritius and Madagascar while Group B had defending champions South Africa, Angola, Malawi, Botswana and Seychelles.
In an interview yesterday, Malawi Under-17 national team coach DeKlerk Nsakakuona welcomed the new draw, saying it does not change anything.
He said: “Like I said before, we just need to prepare well for the tournament.”
Last year, four teams, namely Comoros, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, were disqualified from the competition after a failure to adhere to eligibility guidelines.
The competition proceeded with four teams, Angola, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia.
Malawi finished at the bottom of the table after a 2-2 draw against South Africa and losses to Zambia (6-2) and Angola (7-1).
The Junior Flames also went on lose 2-1 to Angola in third-place play-offs.
Meanwhile, Cosafa also conducted a draw for the girls championship which saw Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Comoros pooled in Group A while South Africa, Mauritius and Namibia are in Group B.
Cosafa general secretary Sue Destombes justified the decision for a fresh draw following the new entrants.
She said: “Ordinarily, we would not have a situation with late entries, but for these particular competitions we feel it is justified given that our mandate is to develop football in the region, and this is key age–group in that region.”
The biggest winning margin in the final of the competition is 3-0 when Malawi beat South Africa in 2001 and Zambia defeated Mauritius in 2017.
Malawi hosted the event in 2019 and was knocked out in the group stage after finishing third following losses to Zambia and e-Swatini and a victory over South Africa.
