FOUR-TIME COSAFA Castle Cup champions, Zimbabwe will once again come under the spotlight at the 20th year of the tournament they used to dominate over the years before falling down the pecking order.

The Warriors will have to negotiate their way from the preliminary round stages for the third successive year after being drawn in Group B alongside Mozambique, Seychelles and Madagascar. 

The competition will run in South Africa’s North West province from June 25 to July 9. 

Warriors interim manager, Wellington Mpandare, acknowledged that the senior side needed to do better than fall at the group stage, which has been the story of their results in 2015 and 2016.

The Yadah Stars consultant was, however, happy that the COSAFA tournament would come before the Warriors begin their CHAN qualifiers against Namibia in July. “It is a good platform for us to use those matches to prepare. Of course, the coach might also want to have a look at one or two foreign-based players for use in the AFCON qualifiers,’’ Mpandare said.

A host of dignitaries, including COSAFA president Philip Chiyangwa, witnessed last night’s draw in South Africa.

According to COSAFA, 13 of the 14 regional block’s nations will take part this year, with only the Comoros Islands withdrawing their name from the draw.

They will be replaced by Tanzania’s Taifa Stars, who also competed in the inaugural tournament in 1997, as well as the 2015 edition. The top teams in each pool will advance to the knock-out stage, where they will be joined by the remaining six sides in the quarter-finals — holders South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia and Lesotho.

South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia, are the seeded teams in the quarter-finals which meant they could not be drawn against one another.

As in the last two editions, the losing teams in the quarterfinals will enter the Plate competition.

Long-time sponsor of the tournament, Castle Lager, will be hosting a number of exciting activations around the Cosafa Castle Cup, including a five-a-side football competition, and have also brought on board a number of ‘Legends’ from the region to lend their support to the event.

Cosafa Castle Cup Legends

Dipsy Selolwane (Botswana), Rotson Kilambe (Zambia), Tinashe Nengomasha (Zimbabwe), Siza Dlamini (Swaziland), Lehlohonolo Seema (Lesotho) and Brian Baloyi (South Africa).

Tico-Tico (Mozambique) and Congo Hindjou (Namibia) will also be assisting Cosafa in our activations ahead of the tournament.

Draw: Group A: Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Mauritius. Group B: Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, Zimbabwe.Quarter-finals: Botswana v Zambia; Namibia v Lesotho, South Africa v Winner Group A; Swaziland v Winner Group B