2025 COSAFA Under-17 Championship

2025 COSAFA U-17
Youth Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Zimbabwe
Dates	11–20 September
Teams	12
Venue	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	South Africa (4th title)
Runners-up	Angola
Third place	Mozambique
Fourth place	Comoros
Tournament statistics
Matches played	22
Goals scored	79 (3.59 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Pedro Antonio; (8 goals)
Best player	Omphemetse Sekgoto
Best goalkeeper	Gelson Joaquim Dala
Fair play award	Mozambique
	← 2024 2026 →

The 2025 COSAFA U-17 Youth Championship (officially known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2026 — COSAFA Qualifiers) was the 13th edition of the COSAFA U-17 Youth Championship (and the 5th time the tournament served as the qualifiers for the continental final tournament), the international youth football championship organised by COSAFA for the men's under-17 national teams of Southern Africa. Zimbabwe was the host of the tournament.

Zambia were the defending champions, having defeated Angola 2–1 in the final of the previous edition,^[1] but failed to make it past the group stage.^[2] South Africa won their fourth title defeating Angola 2–1 in the final.

Participation

Participating teams

Twelve of the 14 COSAFA member nations entered the competition, which served as the regional qualifying tournament for the 2026 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Note: All statistics exclude instances where the team was disqualified during the tournament.

Team	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Angola	8th	2024 (Runners-Up)	Champions (2018, 2021)
Botswana	10th	2024 (Group Stage)	Third place (2002)
Comoros	3rd	2024 (Group stage)	Group stage (2019)
Eswatini	9th	2024 (Group Stage)	Runners-up (2002)
Lesotho	9th	2024 (Group stage)	Fourth place (2002)
Madagascar	4th	2017 (Group stage)	Group stage (2001, 2016, 2017)
Malawi	12th	2024 (Group Stage)	Champions (2001)
Mauritius	7th	2024 (Group Stage)	Runners-up (2017)
Mozambique	7th	2024 (Group stage)	Runners-up (1994, 2019)
South Africa	12th	2024 (Semi-finalist)	Champions (1994, 2002, 2020)
Zambia	11th	2024 (Champions)	Champions (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024)
Zimbabwe	7th	2024 (Semi-finalist)	Champions (2007)

Did not enter

Draw

The draw was held on 5 August 2025 at 11:30 CAT (UTC+2) at Johannesburg. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams, with hosts Zimbabwe seeded in Group A (position A1), the defending champions Zambia seeded in Group B (position B1) and Angola 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.^[3]^[4]

Seeds	Pot 1	Pot 2
Zimbabwe (hosts) Zambia (title holder) Angola	Botswana Mozambique South Africa	Comoros Eswatini Lesotho Madagascar Mauritius Malawi

Squads

Each team was required to register a squad of 20 players for the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2009 eligible to participate.^[5]

Venues

Harare		Harare
Ngoni Stadium	Hearts Stadium
Capacity: 7,000	Capacity: 5,000

Match officials

The following officials were appointed to officiate the tournament:

Referees

Nelson da Silva
Keabetswe Dintwa
Moustoifa Kalido
Lebalang Mokete
Josianno Todihajaniaina
Eness Gumbo^[a]
Godfrey Nkhakananga
Mweshitsama Naftal
Antsino Twanyanyukwa^[a]
Noris Arissol
Luxolo Badi^[a]
Hillary Hambaba^[a]
Thanks Nyahuye
Lawrence Zimondi

Assistant Referees

Ookeditse Keitseope
Moustoifa Elmahfoudhe
Zamani Simelane
Banele Thwala
Siza Dlangamandla
Lareunion Miladera
Samuel Fudzulani
Alex Lumponjani
Kgara Mokoena^[b]
Trywell Nyirenda^[b]
Dominica Melusi

Video Assistant Referees

Brighton Chimene

Assistant Video Assistant Referees

Alex Lumponjani
Shaji Padayachy

Notes

1 2 3 4 Main Referee and Video assistant referee
1 2 Assistant Referee and Assistant video assistant referee

Group stage

COSAFA announced the tournament schedule on 19 August 2025.^[6]

The top team of each group, along with the best second-placed team, advanced to the semi-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria for group play^[5]
Should two teams finish on the same number of points in the pool phase, they were separated by: The result of their head-to-head meetings in the first instance; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Disciplinary points Yellow card: −1 point; Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points; Direct red card: −3 points; Drawing of lots. Should more than two teams finish level on points, the following criteria will be used: The greatest number of points obtained in the matches between the teams concerned; The goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned; The greatest number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned; If after applying criteria (1) to (3), two teams are still equal, the criteria will be reapplied to matches played between the two teams in question to determine the final ranking of the two teams. If this procedure does not allow for classification, the criteria listed below was applied in the indicated order: Goal difference in all group matches; The highest number of goals scored in all group matches; Fair Play points system.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mozambique	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7	Semi-finals
2	Comoros	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Semi-finals
3	Zimbabwe (H)	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1
4	Eswatini	3	0	1	2	0	7	−7	1

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

11 September 2024