Magic Ladies in continental competition
By Michael Uugwanga
REIGNING champions of the Skorpion Zinc/Women Super League champions, Tura Magic Ladies football club will be playing in the Council of Southern Africa Football Association (Cosafa) zone Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Champions League qualifiers.
African football is split into six regional zones, of which each zone will host a mini-tournament that will determine which clubs make it to the continental showcase that is scheduled for October/November 2021.
Once the launch bid for the Women’s Champion League is done in mid-December; the tournament will be contested by eight different clubs across Africa.
Cosafa is in the southern zone, while other zones are North Zone, Zone West A, Zone West B, Central Zone and Central-East Zone. Each zone will have its own format of qualification to the final tournament.
In July, the continent’s ruling body (CAF) made a landmark decision to grow the women’s game with the creation of a women’s club event. The CAF league will see women football being given more opportunities on the continent.
According to the Namibia Football Association (NFA) head of women football desk, Jacky Gertze, Cosafa is yet to inform its members on how the regional qualifiers will pan out due to the high number of countries in the region.
“Cosafa zone currently has more members and more countries therefore Cosafa will have its own competition such as clubs paired into groups of four, with the winning team from each group proceeding to the final tournament that will then determine the team to represent the region. Another option from Cosafa to its members is for clubs to play on a home and away basis however this will depend on the travelling ban due to Covid-19. If it goes ahead then you could see, for example Tura Magic Ladies taking on the champions of Botswana.
But these are just the suggestions from Cosafa as they have not yet officially communicated.
“As per requirements from CAF, it was approved that CAF will look at champions of 2018/2019 depending on the last time that specific league was hosted in that country. Currently Tura Magic Ladies are the champions,” said Gertze.
According to Gertze, the host nation of the Women’s Champions League will have an automatic spot.
“The host nation will automatic have a spot in the champions’ league.
CAF have also decided that the country that is the current African champions league which in this case is Nigeria will have a team and an extra team if one of the clubs from Nigeria make it in their zonal qualifier,” said Gertze.