2025 COSAFA Cup

COSAFA Cup 2025
Tournament details
Host country	South Africa
City	Bloemfontein
Dates	4 – 15 June
Teams	14 (from 2 sub-confederations)
Venue	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Angola (5th title)
Runners-up	South Africa
Third place	Comoros
Fourth place	Madagascar
Tournament statistics
Matches played	22
Goals scored	44 (2 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Depú; (8 goals)
Best player	Depú
Best goalkeeper	Neblú
Fair play award	South Africa
	← 2024 2026 →

The 2025 COSAFA Cup, officially known as the 2025 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup (for sponsorship purposes), was the 24th edition of the COSAFA Cup, the annual international football championship organised by COSAFA for the senior men's national teams of their member associations. South Africa hosted the tournament for the eighth consecutive year, from 4 to 15 June 2025. The tournament involved 14 teams.

Angola were the defending champions, having secured their fourth title in the previous edition.^[1]

Participation

All 14 COSAFA member nations are eligible to participate in the competition, with members from other regional confederations also eligible to join by invitation, either to complete the number of participating teams or to replace any that withdrew.

Participating teams

In May 2025, it was announced that 13 of the 14 COSAFA member nations would take part in the tournament,^[2] with Morocco from UNAF completing the lineup in place of Seychelles, who did not return for this edition.^[3] On 29 May, Morocco withdrew from the competition and were replaced by Tanzania from CECAFA.^[4]^[5] Of the 14 participating nations, Madagascar and Mauritius returned to the competition after missing the previous two and one editions, respectively.^[6]

Team	Type	App	Previous best performance	WR^[a]
Angola	A	20th	Champions (1999, 2001, 2004, 2024)	87
Botswana	A	24th	Runners-up (2016, 2019)	136
Comoros	A'	8th	Fourth place (2024)	105
Eswatini	A	24th	Third place (2016, 2021), Semi-finals (1999, 2002, 2003)	155
Lesotho	A	24th	Runners-up (2000, 2023)	148
Madagascar	A'	13th	Third place (2015)	115
Malawi	A'	23rd	Runners-up (2002, 2003)	132
Mauritius	A	19th	Quarter-finals (2001, 2004)	178
Mozambique	U23	24th	Third place (1997, 2009, 2024)	96
Namibia	A	24th	Champions (2015)	108
South Africa	A'	23rd	Champions (2002, 2007, 2008, 2016, 2021)	56
Tanzania	A'	4th	Third place (2017)	105
Zambia	A'	24th	Champions (1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, 2019, 2022, 2023)	88
Zimbabwe	U23	22nd	Champions (2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2017, 2018)	116

↑ As of the latest FIFA World Ranking, published on 3 April 2025.^[7]

Key: A: First team; A': Local team; U23 Under-23 team (Olympic team)

Squads

Each team may name a preliminary squad of up to 30 players, which must be reduced to a final list of 23 for the tournament.^[8]

Venues

The following two stadiums in the province of Free State were selected to host matches during the tournament, with one of them having previously served as a venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[9]

Bloemfontein	Bloemfontein
	Free State Stadium	Dr. Petrus Molemela Stadium
	Capacity: 42,000	Capacity: 22,000

Final draw

The final tournament draw took place on 21 May 2025, 11:00 SAST (UTC+2).^[10] Four teams; the hosts, the defending champions, and the two highest-ranked sides according to the April 2025 FIFA Rankings, were automatically seeded in position 1 of Groups A to D. The remaining ten teams were divided into two pots based on their FIFA Rankings, with four teams placed in Pot 1 and six in Pot 2.

Seeding

Seeding Pot 1
Team	Rank
Mozambique	96
Comoros	105
Namibia	108
Madagascar	115

Seeding Pot 2
Team	Rank
Zimbabwe	116
Malawi	132
Botswana	136
Lesotho	148
Eswatini	155
Mauritius	178

Draw

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	South Africa
A2	Mozambique
A3	Mauritius
A4	Zimbabwe

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	Angola
B2	Namibia
B3	Malawi
B4	Lesotho

Group C
Pos	Team
C1	Morocco^[a]
C2	Madagascar
C3	Eswatini

Group D
Pos	Team
D1	Zambia
D2	Comoros
D3	Botswana

↑ At the time of the draw, Morocco was still listed as a participant, the position was later taken by Tanzania

Match officials

Referees

Thabang Ketshabile
Arnaud Zafimahatoha
Godfrey Nkhakananga
Patrice Milazar
Celso Alvação
Mweshitsama Naftal
Hillary Hambaba
Brighton Chimene

Assistant Referees

Gaselame Molefe
Hangula Angula
Moustoifa Elmahfoudhe
Zamani Simelane
Romuald Ibenantenaina
Fabien Cauvelet
Lameck Phiri
Zacarias Balói
Elphas Sitole
Trywell Nyirenda

Video assistant referees

Letticia Viana
Mary Njoroge
Maria Rivet
Shaji Padayachy
Akhona Makalima
Trywell Nyirenda
Claris Simango

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss).

If two teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[8]

Points in head-to-head matches match between the two tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

If more than two teams were tied, the following criteria were applied instead:

Points in matches between the tied teams;
Goal difference in matches between the tied teams;
Goals scored in matches between the tied teams;
If after applying all criteria above, two teams were still tied, the above criteria were again applied to matches played between the two teams in question. If this did not resolve the tie, the next three criteria were applied;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Africa (H)	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4	Advance to knockout stage
2	Zimbabwe	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
3	Mozambique	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4
4	Mauritius	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	3

Source: COSAFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

4 June 2025