2025 COSAFA Under-17 Championship

Twelve of the 14 COSAFA member nations entered the competition, which served as the regional qualifying tournament for the 2026 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Note: All statistics exclude instances where the team was disqualified during the tournament.

Team	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Angola	8th	2024 (Runners-Up)	Champions (2018, 2021)
Botswana	10th	2024 (Group Stage)	Third place (2002)
Comoros	3rd	2024 (Group stage)	Group stage (2019)
Eswatini	9th	2024 (Group Stage)	Runners-up (2002)
Lesotho	9th	2024 (Group stage)	Fourth place (2002)
Madagascar	4th	2017 (Group stage)	Group stage (2001, 2016, 2017)
Malawi	12th	2024 (Group Stage)	Champions (2001)
Mauritius	7th	2024 (Group Stage)	Runners-up (2017)
Mozambique	7th	2024 (Group stage)	Runners-up (1994, 2019)
South Africa	12th	2024 (Semi-finalist)	Champions (1994, 2002, 2020)
Zambia	11th	2024 (Champions)	Champions (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024)
Zimbabwe	7th	2024 (Semi-finalist)	Champions (2007)

Did not enter

•  Namibia
•  Seychelles

The draw was held on 5 August 2025 at 11:30 CAT (UTC+2) at Johannesburg. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams, with hosts Zimbabwe seeded in Group A (position A1), the defending champions Zambia seeded in Group B (position B1) and Angola seeded in Group C (position C1). The remaining 9 teams were allocated to two pots based on the results of the previous tournament edition and were drawn to the remaining positions.^[3][4]

Seeds	Pot 1	Pot 2
Zimbabwe (hosts)  Zambia (title holder)  Angola	Botswana  Mozambique  South Africa	Comoros  Eswatini  Lesotho  Madagascar  Mauritius  Malawi

Each team was required to register a squad of 20 players for the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2009 eligible to participate.^[5]

Harare		Harare
Ngoni Stadium	Hearts Stadium
Capacity: 7,000	Capacity: 5,000

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

COSAFA announced the tournament schedule on 19 August 2025.^[6]

The top team of each group, along with the best second-placed team, advanced to the semi-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria for group play[5]

Should two teams finish on the same number of points in the pool phase, they were separated by: The result of their head-to-head meetings in the first instance; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Disciplinary points Yellow card: −1 point; Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points; Direct red card: −3 points; Drawing of lots. Should more than two teams finish level on points, the following criteria will be used: The greatest number of points obtained in the matches between the teams concerned; The goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned; The greatest number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned; If after applying criteria (1) to (3), two teams are still equal, the criteria will be reapplied to matches played between the two teams in question to determine the final ranking of the two teams. If this procedure does not allow for classification, the criteria listed below was applied in the indicated order: Goal difference in all group matches; The highest number of goals scored in all group matches; Fair Play points system.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mozambique	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7	Semi-finals
2	Comoros	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7
3	Zimbabwe (H)	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1
4	Eswatini	3	0	1	2	0	7	−7	1

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Africa	3	3	0	0	13	2	+11	9	Semi-finals
2	Malawi	3	2	0	1	6	6	0	6
3	Zambia	3	1	0	2	6	7	−1	3
4	Madagascar	3	0	0	3	3	13	−10	0

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Angola	3	3	0	0	17	0	+17	9	Semi-finals
2	Lesotho	3	1	1	1	3	7	−4	4
3	Botswana	3	0	2	1	1	6	−5	2
4	Mauritius	3	0	1	2	3	11	−8	1

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The best second-placed team qualified for the semi-finals.^[5]

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A	Comoros	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Semi-finals
2	B	Malawi	3	2	0	1	6	6	0	6
3	C	Lesotho	3	1	1	1	3	7	−4	4

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 September – Harare
	South Africa	7
					20 September – Harare
	Comoros	0
					South Africa	2
	18 September – Harare
					Angola	1
	Mozambique	0
	Angola	1
					Third place
					20 September – Harare
					Comoros	0
					Mozambique	3

Winners qualified for 2026 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

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Winners qualified for 2026 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

There were 79 goals scored in 22 matches, for an average of 3.59 goals per match.

8 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The COSAFA Technical Study Group announced the group stage Best XI as follows:

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Group Stage Best XI
Vilanculos	Costa Vera Amahada	Silva De Figueiredo Nhabanga Molepo	Mchangama Antonio Mhlongo

Coach: Mario Catala

The COSAFA U-17 Championship technical study group selected the following as the best of the tournament.^[7]

Award	Player
Best Player	Omphemetse Sekgoto
Top Goal scorer	Pedro Antonio
Best Goalkeeper	Gelson Joaquim Dala
Fairplay team	Mozambique

The following three teams from COSAFA qualified for the 2026 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in U-17 Africa Cup of Nations1
Angola	18 September 2025	5 (1997, 1999, 2017, 2019, 2025)
South Africa	18 September 2025	5 (2005, 2007, 2015, 2023, 2025)
Mozambique	20 September 2025	2 (1995, 2001)