2026 COSAFA U-20 Cup

2026 COSAFA Under-20 Cup

Tournament details
Host country	Mauritius
Dates	18 – 27 September
Teams	12 (from 1 sub-confederation)
← 2025 2027 →

The 2026 COSAFA U-20 Cup was the 31st edition of the COSAFA U-20 Challenge Cup, an international youth football tournament open to national associations of the COSAFA region. It will take place between 18 and 27 September 2026 in Mauritius. This competition served as the COSAFA qualifiers for the 2027 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.

South Africa defeated Malawi 3-0 in the final. Both finalists qualified for the 2027 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.

Participating teams

The following twelve teams contested the tournament.

Team	Appearances	Previous best performance
Angola	22nd	Runner-up (2000, 2001, 2002, 2011)
Botswana	28th	3rd Place (2009, 2011)
Comoros	9th	Group stage (2013, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024)
Eswatini	29th	Champion (2020)
Lesotho	26th	Runner-up (1990, 2005, 2017)
Malawi	24th	Runner-up (2024)
Mauritius	18th	Group Stage(2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2024, 2025)
Mozambique	26th	Champion (2020)
Namibia	22nd	Champion (2020)
South Africa	29th	Champion (2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2024, 2025)
Seychelles	13th	Group Stage(2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2024, 2025)
Zambia	29th	Champion (1983, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2019, 2022)

Did not enter

• Madagascar
• Zimbabwe

Draw

The draw was held on 12 August 2026 at 13:00 CAT (UTC+2) at Johannesburg.The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams, with hosts Mauritius seeded in Group A (position A1), the defending champions South Africa seeded in Group B (position B1) and Zambia 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.

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2
Mozambique (hosts) Zambia South Africa	Angola Malawi Eswatini	Botswana Comoros Lesotho Namibia Madagascar Zimbabwe

Group stage

All times are local, CAT (UTC+2).

The group stage are played in 3 groups as a round-robin, where the winners and the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mauritius (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semi-finals
2	Namibia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Seychelles	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Mozambique	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: COSAFA
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semi-finals
2	Lesotho	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Angola	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Eswatini	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: COSAFA

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semi-finals
2	Malawi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Comoros	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Botswana	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: COSAFA

Ranking of second-placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A	GrA	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semi-finals
2	B	GrB	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	C	GrC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source:
Rules for classification: Group tiebreakers

See also

• 2026 COSAFA Under-17 Championship