Cosafa back to drawing board

Cosafa has gone back to the drawing board in a bid to find ways of improving the performance of its member national teams in international tournaments.

As a first step, the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) hosted a two-day symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa this week where Football Association of Malawi (FAM) was represented by its general secretary Alfred Gunda, technical director Benjamin Kumwenda, Flames coach Patrick Mabedi and prospective Scorchers coach  Lovemore Fazili.

According to a statement from the regional football governing body, the technical group symposium (TSG), was held under Bridging the Gap of Technical Excellence and was presided over by former FAM president Walter Nyamilandu in his capacity as Cosafa technical committee chairperson and executive member.

Part of a statement from Cosafa said: “It is another exciting initiative from Cosafa to elevate the standard of football in the Southern African region and create a conducive environment for world-class tournaments at all age-group levels.

“The TSG plays a vital role at any tournament in assessing trends and analysing the football on display to provide feedback to member associations, coaches and other stakeholders involved within the teams.”

It said such symposiums can be in the form of team systems, formations, style of play and the individual performance of players, which is invaluable to coaches to not only plan for the future, but assess current developments within football.

On his part, Nyamuilandu said the initiative was aimed at  turning around performance of  members with the view to increasing the number of teams that qualify for the World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) “by taking advantage of the expanded number of teams that will participate at these two prestigious tournaments”.

He said: “The last time a Cosafa team qualified to the World Cup was in 2006 and 2010 through Angola and South Africa [as hosts], respectively. Furthermore, Cosafa has won the Afcon twice through South Africa and Zambia in 1996 and 2012, respectively.

“So, it is high time that we reversed this negative trajectory by supporting our members with the right programs and tools to achieve the much-needed growth and excellence within the region.

“We continue to strive to further our mandate to provide world-class development initiatives in the Southern African region and this TSG symposium is another huge step forward for Cosafa.”

Some of the leading experts in South African football, including  technical directors, coaches past and present and former players were part of the symposium.