{"id":64711,"date":"2025-11-28T18:44:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament"},"modified":"2025-11-28T20:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:24:04","slug":"cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament","title":{"rendered":"COSAFA Draws For CAF Under-17 Girls Football Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The draw has been concluded for the second edition of the CAF Under-17 Girls Integrated Football Tournament (GIFT), to be staged in Harare, Zimbabwe from 8\u201318 December 2025, with exciting match-ups in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>The draw was held at COSAFA House in Johannesburg, home of the host zonal union for this key development event.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament, designed for clubs and academies, provides vital international exposure for young players. It was first played in Dar es Salaam in January 2025, where JKT Queens from Tanzania claimed the crown in the CECAFA region.<\/p>\n<p>It will now be staged for COSAFA teams, with some familiar names included. Group A contains home side Mpopoma Sports Academy from Zimbabwe, along with Otjiwarongo Sports Academy from Namibia, South African giants Mamelodi Sundowns, and Luwinga Academy of Malawi.<\/p>\n<p>Group B features Aguila Girls of Zambia, another Namibian club in the form of Okakarara Golden Ladies, Refilwe FC from South Africa, and Lishoeshoe of Lesotho. The top two teams in each pool will contest the final at the Ngoni Mwosa Stadium in Harare on Thursday, 18 December. The full fixture list will be announced in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>CAF introduced the GIFT U17 tournament to give club teams in this age group the opportunity to compete against their peers within their region, complementing the events already staged for national teams.<\/p>\n<p>CAF has made the growth of women\u2019s football a key aspect of its development agenda, and this tournament provides young players with the chance to showcase their skills and gain experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CAF GIFT U17 tournament was created to fill an important gap in women\u2019s football,\u201d CAF\u2019s Head of Women\u2019s Football Meskerem Tadesse Goshime said. \u201cIt aims to offer girls under the age of 17, who often play in senior leagues, an opportunity to compete at a higher level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis tournament not only enables young players to gain international experience, but also stimulates investment in women\u2019s football at the level of national clubs and associations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ultimate goal is to see more African countries participate in similar competitions as part of regional development. This tournament is a starting point for the expansion of girls\u2019 competitions throughout Africa, and the idea is to create a platform for girls under the age of 17 to play in competitions appropriate to their level and age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>CAF U17 GIRLS INTEGRATED FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT (GIFT) DRAW<\/b><\/p>\n<p>GROUP A<\/p>\n<p>Mpopoma Sports Academy (Zimbabwe)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060Otjiwarongo Sports Academy (Namibia)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060Luwinga Academy (Malawi)<\/p>\n<p><b>GROUP B<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u2060Aguila Girls (Zambia)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060\u2060Okakarara Golden Ladies (Namibia)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060\u2060Refilwe FC (South Africa)<\/p>\n<p>\u2060\u2060Lishoeshoe (Lesotho)<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The draw has been concluded for the second edition of the CAF Under-17 Girls Integrated Football Tournament (GIFT), to be staged in Harare, Zimbabwe from 8\u201318 December 2025, with exciting match-ups in the competition. The draw was held at COSAFA House in Johannesburg, home of the host zonal union for this key [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-64711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>COSAFA Draws For CAF Under-17 Girls Football Tournament - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The draw has been concluded for the second edition of the CAF Under-17 Girls Integrated Football Tournament (GIFT), to b ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COSAFA Draws For CAF Under-17 Girls Football Tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The draw has been concluded for the second edition of the CAF Under-17 Girls Integrated Football Tournament (GIFT), to b ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T18:44:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-28T20:24:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1764348210.272441.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"COSAFA Draws For CAF Under-17 Girls Football Tournament\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-28T18:44:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-28T20:24:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1764348210.272441.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/cosafa-draws-for-caf-under-17-girls-football-tournament\",\"name\":\"COSAFA Draws For CAF Under-17 Girls Football Tournament - 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