The CAF African Schools Football Championship Continental Final will take centre-stage in Durban, South Africa from April 5-8 where the best teams from the six Confederation of African Football zones will battle it out to be crowned overall champions.
It will be a celebration of schools football on the continent and a chance for the young players aged 12-15 to create memories that will last a lifetime.
There will be a boys and a girls competition that will each contain seven teams – six from each zone and an extra place for the hosts, the South African Football Association (SAFA).
As SAFA sides both won their regional COSAFA qualifiers, and so the extra places in fact go to the runners-up in those preliminaries.
Let’s take a closer look at how the continental finals will work.
GIRLS COMPETITION
The Qualifiers
Ecole Omar Ibn Khatab (Morocco)
Scan Aid (The Gambia)
CEG Colby (Benin)
CEG Mfilou (Congo-Brazzaville)
Fountain Gate Dodoma Secondary School (Tanzania)
Anse Boileau (Seychelles)
Edendale Technical High School (South Africa)
The Groups
The teams will be drawn into two pools, Group A and Group B. Edendale Technical will be the seeded team in Group A, which will contain three teams.
The teams will play each other in a round-robin format, with the top two sides in each pool advancing to the semifinals.
The top team in Group A will play the runner-up in Group B in the semifinals, and vice-versa.
The winners of those semis meet in the final, while the losers will play in a bronze-medal fixture to decide who finishes third.
The fixtures
The draw has yet to be made for the matches, which will all be played at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi, just south of Durban.
The team names will be populated at the draw, but this is how the fixtures will look. All times are local (GMT+2).
April 5, 2023
08h00: Edendale Technical vs A2
09h00: B1 vs B2
10h00: A3 vs Edendale Technical
11h00: B3 vs B4
12h00: B2 vs B3
13h00: A2 vs A3
14h00: B4 vs B1
April 6, 2023
08h30: B1 vs B3
08h30: B4 vs B2
11h00: Winner Group A vs Runner-Up Group B
11h00: Winner Group B vs Runner-Up Group A
April 8, 2023 (April 7 is a rest day)
09h00: Loser Semifinal 1 vs Loser Semifinal 2
10h00: Winner Semifinal 1 vs Winner Semifinal 2
The Prizemoney
The Motsepe Foundation has in total donated USD 10-million for the inauguralCAF African Schools Football Championship. The breakdown in prizemoney for the finals competition is as follows:
Winners: USD 300,000
Runners-Up: USD 200,000
Third place: USD 150,000
BOYS COMPETITION
The Qualifiers
CEG Sainte Rita (Benin)
Clapham High School (South Africa)
Complexe Scolaire Ben Sekou Sylla (Guinea)
CS Horizon of Bukavu (DR Congo)
Ecole Hedi Ayadi (Tunisia)
Royal Giants High School (Uganda)
Salima Secondary School (Malawi)
The Groups
In the same format as the girls’ competition, the seven teams will be split into two pools. Group A will have three teams and will be headed by local sideClapham High School as the seeded school.
Group B will have four teams and there are no seeds. The draw will determine which teams are B1, B2 etc.
The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals, with a bronze medal match and the final to follow those.
The fixtures
The matches will also be played at the King Zwelithini Stadium. Games are played on a ‘half pitch,’ so two fixtures can be staged at the same time.
Clapham High School will take position A1, with the rest to be populated by the draw. All times are local (GMT+2).
April 5, 2023
08h00: Clapham High School vs A2
09h00: B1 vs B2
10h00: A3 vs Clapham High School
11h00: B3 vs B4
12h00: B2 vs B3
13h00: A2 vs A3
14h00: B4 vs B1
April 6, 2023
09h30: B1 vs B3
09h30: B4 vs B2
12h00: Winner Group A vs Runner-Up Group B
12h00: Winner Group B vs Runner-Up Group A
April 8, 2023 (April 7 is a rest day)
09h00: Loser Semifinal 1 vs Loser Semifinal 2
11h00: Winner Semifinal 1 vs Winner Semifinal 2
The Prizemoney
The Motsepe Foundation has in total donated USD 10-million for the inauguralCAF African Schools Football Championship. The breakdown in prizemoney for the finals competition is the same as the girls and is as follows:
Winners: USD 300,000
Runners-Up: USD 200,000
Third place: USD 150,000
Credit: CAF Communication
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