Zimbabwe banned from 2020 Cosafa Cup

Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) has suspended Zimbabwe from the 2020 Cosafa Cup for failing to comply with a deadline to commit to hosting the tournament.

Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has also been slapped with a $200 000 (about K150 million) fine for the same offence.

Cosafa deputy chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda, who is also responsible for competitions, confirmed the development yesterday.

“If you fail to host the competition, you miss the next edition. It’s per regulations and they went through a disciplinary hearing,” he said.

After failing to host this year’s Cosafa Cup which was instead hosted by South Africa, Zifa was asked to commit to staging the 2020 event by June 30.

Cosafa has since ordered Zifa to pay the fine by August 15 or Zimbabwe will be banned from participating at all Cosafa competitions.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry has claimed the nation refused to stage the 2019 Cosafa Cup because it represented a “bad deal” for the country and Zifa.

She tweeted: “Then Cosafa wanted a guarantee that Zimbabwe will host the [Cosafa] tournament next year to prevent a fine and suspension from the games in 2020? The same agreement? Total gate takings $45 000. You do the maths. Where do all the gate takings go?”

There were reports in Zimbabwe media that Zifa is contemplating quitting Cosafa to join Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) and that they will not send senior and under-20 women’s teams to the competition to be held in South Africa from tomorrow to August 11. However, Nyirenda dismissed the reports, saying Zifa had confirmed they will be arriving today for the two competitions which will run at the same time