Football: Cosafa Cup-Seychelles on second participation |24 September 2004

A 24-member delegation comprising 20 players, the majority of them plying their trade in the country's top flight, and four officials is expected to jet off to South Africa on November 23.

Sports Nation was unable to get the coaches' views on the tournament as head coach Ralph 'Tiapout' Jean-Louis is out of the country and assistant coach Bernard Dorasamy declined to make any comments, saying he is "just a helper on the team."

According to the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF), 30 players have been called for training ahead of the competition and next week the squad will be trimmed to 20.

The four officials expected to make the trip are SFF's secretary general Wilhem Boniface, Ralph Jean-Louis (head coach), Bernard Dorasamy (assistant coach) and Rajack Ramjauny (acting manager).

The draw for the competition, which is played between teams of the 12-member countries of the Cosafa, namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Seychelles, has not been made yet .

It is to be noted that during their first participation in the Cosafa Cup in 2000, Seychelles fell 0-3 to Zambia in the opening match and 1-3 to Namibia in their second game to be bundled out of the tournament.

Meanwhile, the 2004 Cosafa Castle Cup, contested between senior teams of southern Africa, is underway and Seychelles is the only member country not taking part in the competition.

According to Mr Boniface, discussions are underway with government representatives to see whether Seychelles could make its first participation in the annual Cosafa Castle Cup.
"For us to be able to take part in the annual competition, we have to be able to fully comply with the sponsor's (Castle beer) requirements, something which is difficult given the country's policy of not advertising alcoholic and tobacco products at all sporting venues," said Mr Boniface.

Article 33.1 of the Cosafa bye-laws states that the host association, in this case the SFF, shall agree to provide to the sponsor a clean stadium for its (the sponsor) exclusive use.

Consequently, the host association must make it a condition of rental of the stadium that no other advertising appears. No other advertising will be permitted either on the field perimetre or anywhere within the view of television cameras or the main grandstand.

The sponsor has the right to cover any existing publicity in the stadium chosen by the host association. The host association will undertake to have all flag poles removed within camera view to ensure that the broadcast quality is maintained. No compensation will be paid by the sponsors to the host association ensuring that a clean stadium is delivered. Ambush marketing is strictly prohibited. The host association will ensure that no ambush marketing efforts are undertaken within the stadium perimetre.

Article 33.2 states that participanting teams shall undertake to wear all apparel supplied by the sponsor which will include T-shirts, shirts, ties, caps, training bibs and practice kits. Each team will have to wear the practice kit for the official warm-up prior to the match. Should teams and/or officials fail to comply with this rule, suitable disciplinary actions will be taken by the organising committee (Cosafa).

In accordance with the Fédération internationale de football association (Fifa) statutes, no sponsor advertising is to appear on the teams' playing kits though.

It is worth noting that the organisers (Cosafa) take charge of expenses (accommodation and transportation) of all the participating teams' and that a total of 1.82 million rands is each year distributed as prize money.

The winners of the Cosafa Castle Cup receive 550, 000 rands, the losing finalists 280,000 rands and the losing semifinalists 145,000 rands.

The losing quarterfinalists pocket 95,000 rands, while the losing teams of the knockout phase each get 80,000 rands.

C. J.