Football: Cosafa Senior Challenge-The Pirates take off to South Africa |17 July 2008

Organised by the Council of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) and sponsored by the South Africa's Mpumalanga province, the tournament is divided into two phases.

Fourteen countries featured in the draw for the competition including the Comoros Islands, the newest member of Cosafa.

The top six teams determined by the latest FIFA rankings will be given a bye directly into the quarter finals, leaving the bottom eight countries in the ranking to fight for the remaining two places in the quarter-finals.

Seychelles were drawn with Madagascar, Swaziland and Mauritius in Group A while in Group B, Malawi have been placed alongside Lesotho, Namibia and the Comoros Island.
 
Winners in each group will advance to the quarter-finals where Angola will play against Group B winner while the top finisher in Group A will face South Africa.

In the other two quarter-finals Botswana will play against Mozambique while Zambia will take on Zimbabwe.

Host South Africa are the defending champions while Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia have won three titles each since the introduction of the competition in 1997.

The players and officials making the trip are Nelson Sopha, Eugene Valentin, Ricky Rose, Nigel Freminot, Jonathan Bibi, Godfrey Denis, Bernard St Ange, Neddy Rose, Henney Dufresne, Philip Zialor, Norvil Gaspard, Colin Laporte, Trevor Poiret, Don Anacoura, Nelson Laurence, Harry Libanotis, Lorenzo Mathiot, Denis Barbé, David Dorby, Rennick Esther (players), Ralph Jean-Louis, Danny Laurette (coaches) Sam Moses (medical officer), Jean-Claude Labrosse (referee) Ulric Mathiot (team manager) and Dolor Ernesta (head of delegation).