Football: Cosafa Under-17 tournament   Seychelles withdraws participation |27 November 2021

Seychelles has withdrawn its participation in the Cosafa Region 5 football tournament organised by the Council of Southern African Football Associations.

This comes as a result of new travel measures being applied by the Ministry of Health for Seychellois nationals, residents and visitors travelling from and to the southern Africa region. The measures apply for South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

This is because of the new coronavirus variant called B.1.1.529 now detected in South Africa.

Among the measures being applied as of today, travel to South Africa and the other said countries is strongly discouraged.

“It is with regrets that the SFF (Seychelles Football Federation) has to withdraw its participation in the Cosafa Region 5 tournament for under-17 boys. This is due to the recent emergence of the new Covid-19 variant in South Africa, Lesotho and the surrounding southern African countries,” said SFF secretary general and chief executive Georges Bibi.

The country’s delegation for the eight-team event was to be made up of 25 people including 20 players.

The team were to leave tomorrow for Maseru, Lesotho for the Cosafa Region 5 football tournament organised by the Council of Southern African Football Associations.

Seychelles had been drawn in group B along with Botswana, Angola and Malawi. Group A consists of Zimbabwe, Eswatini, hosts Lesotho and Zambia.

The top two teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals, with the decider to take place on December 8.

All matches will be staged at the Setsotso Stadium.

Gerard Govinden