2025 COSAFA Cup


The 2025 COSAFA Cup, officially known as the 2025 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup, was the 24th edition of the COSAFA Cup, the annual international football championship organised by COSAFA for the senior men's national teams of their member associations. South Africa hosted the tournament for the eighth consecutive year, from 4 to 15 June 2025. The tournament involved 14 teams.
Angola were the defending champions, having secured their fourth title in the previous edition.

Participation

All 14 COSAFA member nations are eligible to participate in the competition, with members from other regional confederations also eligible to join by invitation, either to complete the number of participating teams or to replace any that withdrew.

Participating teams

In May 2025, it was announced that 13 of the 14 COSAFA member nations would take part in the tournament, with Morocco from UNAF completing the lineup in place of Seychelles, who did not return for this edition. On 29 May, Morocco withdrew from the competition and were replaced by Tanzania from CECAFA. Of the 14 participating nations, Madagascar and Mauritius returned to the competition after missing the previous two and one editions, respectively.
TeamTypePrevious best performanceWR
A20th 87
A24th 136
A'8th 105
A24th, [|Semi-finals] 155
A24th 148
A'13th 115
A'23rd 132
A19th 178
U2324th 96
A24th 108
A'23rd 56
A'4th 105
A'24th 88
U2322nd 116

;Key

Squads

Each team may name a preliminary squad of up to 30 players, which must be reduced to a final list of 23 for the tournament.

Venues

The following two stadiums in the province of Free State were selected to host matches during the tournament, with one of them having previously served as a venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Final draw

The final tournament draw took place on 21 May 2025, 11:00 SAST. Four teams; the hosts, the defending champions, and the two highest-ranked sides according to the April 2025 FIFA Rankings, were automatically seeded in position 1 of Groups A to D. The remaining ten teams were divided into two pots based on their FIFA Rankings, with four teams placed in Pot 1 and six in Pot 2.

Seeding

Team
116
132
136
148
155
178

Draw

Team
B1
B2
B3
B4

Team
D1
D2
D3

Match officials

;Referees
  • Thabang Ketshabile
  • Arnaud Zafimahatoha
  • Godfrey Nkhakananga
  • Patrice Milazar
  • Celso Alvação
  • Mweshitsama Naftal
  • Hillary Hambaba
  • Brighton Chimene
;Assistant Referees
  • Gaselame Molefe
  • Hangula Angula
  • Moustoifa Elmahfoudhe
  • Zamani Simelane
  • Romuald Ibenantenaina
  • Fabien Cauvelet
  • Lameck Phiri
  • Zacarias Balói
  • Elphas Sitole
  • Trywell Nyirenda
;Video assistant referees

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points.
If two teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
  1. Points in head-to-head matches match between the two tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in all group matches;
  3. Goals scored in all group matches;
  4. Drawing of lots.
If more than two teams were tied, the following criteria were applied instead:
  1. Points in matches between the tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in matches between the tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in matches between the tied teams;
  4. If after applying all criteria above, two teams were still tied, the above criteria were again applied to matches played between the two teams in question. If this did not resolve the tie, the next three criteria were applied;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Drawing of lots.

    [|Group A]

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[|Group B]

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

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Third-place

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
PlayerOffenceSuspension
Randy Nteka in Group B vs Namibia Group B vs Lesotho
Pascal Colin in Group A vs Mozambique Group A vs South Africa
Lehlohonolo Matsau in Group B vs Malawi
in Group B vs Angola 		Group B vs Namibia
Naimoudine Assane in Semi-finals vs South Africa [|Third-place match] vs Madagascar