The inaugural COSAFA Awards were held in Johannesburg recently and brought out a galaxy of stars to celebrate our achievements as a football community in Southern Africa. There were many big winners on the night, not least the Mamelodi Sundowns quartet of Rulani Mokwena, Ronwen Williams, Thapelo Maseko and Andile Dlamini, as we honoured those who took our game to the next level in 2023.

COSAFA is about to embark on an exciting new era with the acquisition of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) equipment to both roll out at its tournaments and use as a teaching tool for training purposes for match officials on the continent. In this episode of The COSAFA Show, we chat to COSAFA Executive Director Sue Destombes and COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima about the way forward with VAR in the region.

Ashford Mamelodi is a leading administrator on the African continent who previously served as Secretary General at the Botswana Football Association and COSAFA. He was also a FIFA Development Officer for many years. He has a book coming out soon called Protecting the Game, where he delves into his 10 years at the BFA and the lessons learned and experience gained from that period of his life.We sat down to discuss his career, starting out with why he decided to write his book.

Among the coaches at the COSAFA Beach Soccer Championships will be Brazilian Guga Zloccowick, who takes charge of Saudi Arabia. The Middle East nation are the first ever non-African team to compete at a COSAFA event and Zloccowick talks to us about the tournament, growing the game in Saudi Arabia and much more in a fascinating interview for The COSAFA Show.

In our latest episode of The COSAFA Show we look ahead to the COSAFA Beach Soccer Championships in Durban next month, as well as the third round of African women’s Olympic qualifiers. Featuring Des Ellis, Thelma Smidt. Racheal Kundananji, Babra Banda and Joshua Knipp.

In our latest episode of The COSAFA Show as we look back on a superb first week for most of our Southern African sides at the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast. Namibia beat the odds to defeat Tunisia, Mozambique drew with powerhouse Egypt, Angola held Algeria and Zambia played to a 1-1 draw with fancied DR Congo. Only South Africa have some work to do after they slipped to a 2-0 defeat to Mali. We will hear from several coaches and players.

The Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast get under way on Saturday and there will be five teams from the COSAFA region participating. We speak to a number of them ahead of their title challenge.

In this episode we hear from COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima on the next generation of match officials in the region and get the views of COSAFA Executive Director Sue Destombes on the African Schools Football Championship qualifiers, as well as the exciting, proposed plan for the organisation’s tournament calendar in 2024.