Football: Cosafa Cup 2013-Seychelles drawn in group A |15 May 2013

The Seychelles team will face Indian Ocean rivals Mauritius, along with Tanzania and Namibia in group A of the 14-team Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) tournament.
The draw was made in Lusaka, Zambia, recently when the 14 competing nations learned their fate.

The eight lowest seeded sides according to the April Fédération internationale de Football Association (Fifa) world rankings have been pooled into two groups of four sides each. The remaining six top seeds will enter the competition in the quarterfinal stage with hosts Zambia already paired against Mozambique in their last-eight clash.

The competition is held for southern African nations. However, as the Comoros and Madagascar are not taking part, two eastern African countries – Kenya and Tanzania – have been invited instead.
 
The teams will play each other in a round-robin format, with the top sides in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals. Aside from Zambia taking on Mozambique, holders Zimbabwe will start the defence of their title with a tasty clash against Malawi. South Africa will take on the winners of group A, while Angola await the victors in group B.

The opening game of the tournament will be played in Lusaka on July 6 when Tanzania take on Mauritius. Seychelles’ first match will be against Namibia on July 6, with the second match on July 8 against Tanzania and their final group encounter against Mauritius on July 10.

Defending champions Zimbabwe head the honours list with four titles, while Zambia, South Africa and Angola have three each. They are the only countries to have won the event.
Matches will also be played in Kabwe and Kitwe.

The Cosafa Cup is making its return for the first time since 2009, when then hosts Zimbabwe defeated Zambia 3-1 in the final. The Cosafa Cup was first played in 1997 as a regional championship for Southern African sides. 

Seychelles are the lowest ranked team in the tournament at 51st in Africa and 199th worldwide.

The following are the two groups:

Group A: Tanzania, Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles
Group B: Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland

S. N.