COSAFA SUPER CUP BLOW FOR LEOPARD

MBABANE – Royal Leopard have been dealt a major blow following the postponement of the E20 million-sponsored COSAFA Super Cup to 2016.

The inaugural regional competition for league champions was conceptualised during last year’s COSAFA Annual General Assembly in Maseru and was due to take place early this year, before it was once again postponed to August. However, the tight schedule forced the organisation to once again shift it to 2016.

COSAFA executive committee member and former FA First Vice President Timothy Shongwe confirmed that the tournament would now be held in two years time due to inability to secure a slot as a result of busy football calendar. The decision was taken during last week’s COSAGA AGM in Johannesburg, where South Africa was chosen to host the 2015 Senior Challenge Cup.

“It was discussed during the meeting and it was felt that we should shift it to 2016. The committee felt that we could not have more than two competitions per year, and next year we will have the Senior Challenge and Under-20 Youth Championships. Then in 2016 we will have the Super Cup and the Senior Challenge,” Shongwe said. He said the idea was to have not more than two competitions per year, which then forced them to postpone.  “The sponsor has no problem with the changes because we could not find suitable dates for the tournament. But we are going to have it in 2016,” he said.

COSAFA had clinched a massive sponsorship with television station called Siyaya T.V which won the rights to air Bafana Bafana games in a multimillion deal. The competition will be competed for by the region’s big guns who have won their respective leagues. It is aimed at improving the standard of the game in this part of the competition.

Already, Leopard were in line to face giants such as Mamelodi Sundowns and Zimbabwe’s Dynamos F.C which recently pulled out of the CAF Champions despite winning the league. Zesco United won the league in Zambia, and could feature in the competition if they defend it.

Leopard PRO Frank Hurube said even though they had not been officially notified about it, they were ready to compete given that they have a huge ambition of exploring continental football.
“We hope that we will try and win the league so that when it finally takes place we can compete. But at the moment, we cannot complain because we did not have anything official about it,” he said. Meanwhile, Hurube said that the club was geared for Saturday’s clash against Red Lions at Mhlume Stadium. He said they were happy to welcome back Sifiso Sushi Nkambule from injury for the clash.

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