Caf African Schools Football Championship |03 April 2023
The Anse Boileau delegation before their departure on Saturday (Photo: Contributed)
Seychellois team in first ever continental finals
A girls’ school team have made history by becoming the first Seychellois outfit ever to qualify for the final stages of a continental African football competition.
Anse Boileau, who finished second in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) qualifiers for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) African Schools Championship in Lilongwe, Malawi in October last year, have made it to the continental showpiece due to the fact that South Africa will host the finals.
South Africa lifted both the boys’ and girls’ trophies in Malawi last year to advance to the continental finals as Cosafa zone winners. Only the boys’ and girls’ group winners of Caf’s six zones and the hosts of the continental finals were to play in the final stage of the competition.
However, as South Africa has won the bid to host the continental finals, they have qualified automatically and freed their places to the runners-up of the Cosafa zone, the Malawian boys’ team and the Seychellois girls’ squad.
Five girls’ teams took part in the Cosafa qualifiers last year and Anse Boileau finished second with seven points behind South Africa’s Edendale Technical with 12 points having won all their matches. Malawi’s Malindi Secondary finished third with six points.
The battle for the top spot should have been between Edendale Technical and Malindi Secondary but the Malawians were found to have fielded two overaged players in two of their games and were stripped of the two wins and relegated to third place allowing the Seychelles side to clinch the silver medal.
Had this not happened Anse Boileau would have finished third which would have still been a good result.
The competition is for boys and girls under 15 years old with the cut off date of birth being the year 2008.
On the boys’ side Seychelles was represented in the Cosafa qualifiers by Persévérance who managed fifth place out of six teams. South Africa’s Clapham High School finished first with Malawi’s Salima Secondary school and IQRA from the Comoros third.
Fifteen players and five officials make up the Seychelles team who left for Durban, South Africa on Saturday by Ethiopian Airways and return on April 10, Easter Monday. The delegation have already arrived and settled in Durban. The Caf African Schools Football Championship finals will take place from April 5-8, 2023.
The championship, which is in its inaugural edition, is the brainchild of Caf president Patrice Motsepe who has pledged US $10 million from the Motsepe Foundation to help initiate and support the growth of football in schools from across the continent.
The continental winners in each category will receive US $300,000, the runners up US $200,000 and US $150,000 for third place.
At the zonal level, the winners in each category in each of the six zones will receive US $100,000, the runners up US $75,000 and US $50,000 for third position.
The total prize money for this inaugural year is US $4 million and will be allocated from the US $10 million donation from the Motsepe Foundation.
The championship is an important and significant step in Caf's commitment to developing and growing youth and schools football on the African continent and to pay the winning girls’ schools the same prize money as the winning boys’ schools.
The money will not be issued as cash prizes to the players of the winning teams, but will be used to finance educational projects at the schools including infrastructure, football pitches and other amenities.
Disbursement of funds for the approved projects is expected to start in July this year.
For this inaugural tournament Caf has also invited the Minister for Education, Minister for Youth and Sports and the president of the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) to attend.
The SFF is being represented by its vice-president Dolor Ernesta and youth and sports principal secretary Ralph Jean-Louis.
The Ministry of Education will have no representative on account of a busy schedule and late invitation.
The delegation
Goalkeepers: Farisha Moumou, Lee-Handra Leon.
Defenders: Arshini Dick, Azarelle Rose, Shanon Malvina, Kim Marie, Rhea Rose, Elvina Hoareau. Midfielders: Eva Jeremie, Etana Pointe, Maria Tambara, Clara Libanotis.
Strikers: Sherina Radegonde, Farisha Hertel, Keisha Moustache.
Management: Kerin Moses (head of delegation and safeguarding officer), Michael Chang Pen Tive (coach), Peggy Freminot (manager), Gracy Nartey (physiotherapist), Osama Haroun (technical director).
Contributed
