COSAFA Cup Football: History, Format, Past Winners and African Kick Off Times

The COSAFA Cup is the annual football tournament for the men's national teams of Southern Africa, officially called the COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup and organised by COSAFA. Zambia hold the record with 7 titles through 2025, and Angola won in 2024 and 2025. South Africa hosted the 2025 edition and the cup has a place in the soccer calendar in South Africa, so it sits closest to home for readers there.

What follows covers how the tournament works, who is allowed to enter, every final from 2019 to 2025, the scoring records and what the cup means for readers in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Kampala as well as Johannesburg. In my opinion it is one of the friendliest competitions in African football to learn, a little like a neighbourhood five a side league where the same faces come back every year and the smallest team on the pitch always fancies a run to the end.

What Is the COSAFA Cup, and How Do You Read Its Table, Fixtures and Results?

The COSAFA Cup is contested by national teams, so the modules at the top follow countries rather than clubs, and each one refreshes itself after the final whistle. The Cosafa Cup table shows every group with matches played, wins, draws, defeats, goals scored and conceded, and points. South African readers will know it as the log table, and the reading is the same in Johannesburg as in Nairobi: points come first, and the tiebreakers COSAFA sets out for that edition separate teams that finish level.

The Cosafa Cup fixtures list carries every confirmed match with its date, its venue and the kick off time for WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT, so a supporter in Kampala and one in Cape Town read the same line and each find their own clock. When a match is finished it moves across to the Cosafa Cup results list, with the score and the scorers beside it. So, if you want to know where a team stands, the table answers you, and if you want to know how it got there, the results tell the story in date order.

In my opinion, the best habit with a short tournament is to read the table and the fixtures side by side. A group in this cup is settled over very few matches, which means a single draw can change the whole picture and the last round of group games often decides everything at once. That being said, goal difference carries more weight here than in a long league season, because a team has so little time to repair a heavy defeat.

Who Won the COSAFA Cup Most Recently, and How Did They Do It?

Angola won the 2024 and 2025 editions back to back. They beat Namibia 5-0 in the 2024 final, then beat South Africa A' 3-0 in the 2025 final on South African soil, with Comoros taking third place and Madagascar fourth. If a later edition has been completed since, its winner sits at the top of the results module, and everything written here about the history of the cup still stands.

Those two titles took Angola to 5, level with South Africa and behind only Zambia on 7 and Zimbabwe on 6. Namibia complete the list of champions with their single title, won in 2015. In my opinion, that spread is the best thing about the cup, because five different nations have lifted the trophy and the gap between the leaders and the chasing group is a couple of titles rather than a whole era of dominance.

Angola's run also ended a strong Zambian stretch, since Zambia won three of the four finals played from 2019 to 2023, each one by a 1-0 scoreline. Zambia beat Botswana in 2019, Namibia after extra time in 2022 and Lesotho in 2023, with South Africa taking the 2021 final in between. A useful comparison is a Lagos market stall that held the best corner for years until a new trader arrived with a sharper offer, and in this cup nobody keeps the corner for very long.

When Is the COSAFA Cup, and What Time Do Matches Kick Off Across Africa?

The COSAFA Cup is held once a year, and COSAFA confirms the host nation and the dates for each edition. Anyone searching for COSAFA Cup 2026 should go straight to the fixtures module, because it fills with dates, venues and kick off times as soon as the organisers publish a schedule, and it updates if a match is moved. Rather than print a month that could shift, the dates are left to that module, which is the one place on the site where they are kept current.

Kick off times appear in four zones, because the cup is followed across several of them at once. SAST, the clock in South Africa, runs two hours ahead of GMT, WAT in Nigeria runs one hour ahead, EAT in Kenya and Uganda runs three hours ahead, and Ghana keeps GMT itself. So, a 15:00 SAST kick off is 13:00 in Accra, 14:00 in Lagos and 16:00 in Nairobi and Kampala. Angola share the WAT clock with Lagos, while Comoros and Madagascar share EAT with Nairobi.

An evening kick off shows the spread most clearly. An 18:00 SAST start is 16:00 GMT in Accra, 17:00 WAT in Lagos and 19:00 EAT in Nairobi and Kampala, which suits an after work viewing in East Africa and an early evening one in the west. A useful habit is to read the zone column before anything else, because a time copied from a South African listing will be an hour out in Lagos and two hours out in Accra, and that is how people miss the first half of a final.

How Does the COSAFA Cup Work?

The COSAFA Cup is a short tournament that opens with a group stage and closes with knockout ties and a final. In plain steps, each team plays the others in its group, the sides that qualify from the groups move into the knockout rounds, and the two remaining sides meet in the final. Finals have been settled in different ways: South Africa beat Senegal on penalties in 2021, and Zambia beat Namibia after extra time in 2022.

The exact shape has changed from one edition to the next, as COSAFA adjusts the number of groups and the route into the knockouts to suit the entries and the host. So, the most reliable way to read any single year is through the table module, which shows that edition's groups and standings as they were set. The record books treat every winner the same way, whatever the format, so a title from the early years counts exactly like Angola's in 2025.

Which Teams Can Play in the COSAFA Cup, and Who Has Come In as a Guest?

The cup is open to COSAFA's member nations, and the organisers have also invited teams from outside Southern Africa. Seven non member nations have taken part as guests: DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Senegal. Eswatini, a full member, played under the name Swaziland until 2018, so older results lists carry the earlier name, and a reader tracing a long head to head should look for both. Invitations bring a different style into the draw, which is part of why the groups rarely play out as people expect.

Some guests have gone a long way. Senegal were invited in 2021 and 2022, finishing as runners up to South Africa on penalties in 2021 and third in 2022, while Tanzania were fourth in 1997 and third in 2017. Ghana, Kenya and Uganda have also played, but the published records do not set out the years of those visits clearly, so they are left undated here rather than guessed. If a guest appears in a future edition, the fixtures module will show it.

Who Has Won the COSAFA Cup, Year by Year?

Zambia have won the COSAFA Cup more often than anyone, with 7 titles, and they were the first winners when the tournament began in 1997. Zimbabwe come next on 6. That pair of wins, in my opinion, shows how a settled squad can carry its form from one edition to the next, since Zimbabwe won consecutive titles in 2017 and 2018.

South Africa and Angola sit level on 5 titles each. South Africa's total includes the A' side's win in 2021, and Angola's includes the back to back titles of 2024 and 2025. Namibia's single title came in 2015, and Namibia have also reached two of the recent finals, against Zambia in 2022 and Angola in 2024. Those totals cover every edition through 2025, and any later champion will show in the results module first.

The table below lists the finals played from 2019 to 2025, six finals shared between three nations. The 2010 edition, which was due to be held in Angola, was cancelled after COSAFA said the hosting guarantees it needed were not in place, so that year has no champion. Reading the finals in a row is useful for South African readers in particular, because it shows how often the A' side has reached the last match and how close the 2021 title was.

Who Are the COSAFA Cup Top Scorers, and Which Records Still Stand?

Depú of Angola, born Laurindo Aurélio, is the COSAFA Cup's all time top scorer with 13 goals through the 2025 edition. He finished as the tournament's top scorer in 2024 with 5 goals and again in 2025 with 8, and those two figures add up to his whole tally, so every one of his record goals arrived during Angola's two title runs. It could be argued that few strikers anywhere have tied a scoring record so closely to their country's trophies.

Behind him, Peter Ndlovu of Zimbabwe and Manuel 'Tico-Tico' Bucuane of Mozambique share second place on 10 goals each. Ndlovu's 10 goals were scored for Zimbabwe, one of the cup's most successful nations with 6 titles. As a team, Zambia hold the most top four finishes, with 19, and the most editions played, with 21, missing the top four only four times by the end of the 2022 edition.

The Cosafa Cup stats module keeps the scoring list for the edition in play, along with assists, clean sheets and cards, and it updates after each match. A useful habit is to read it next to the all time list above, because a striker with a good group stage can climb quickly in a tournament this short. A hat trick in one match can be worth as much as a whole edition of steady scoring, and Depú's 8 goals in 2025 show how fast a record can move.

Which Nations Have Shaped the COSAFA Cup, Country by Country?

South Africa is where the COSAFA Cup draws the most interest, and Bafana Bafana's name sits on 5 titles, level with Angola. The A' side won the 2021 edition and reached the 2025 final as hosts, so the cup sits close to home for South African supporters. For a South African reader, the useful check each edition is whether the senior side or the A' side took the field, which the results module shows as entered.

Zambia are the record holders on 7, the first champions in 1997 and the winners of three finals between 2019 and 2023. Zimbabwe, on 6, gave the cup Peter Ndlovu and the back to back titles of 2017 and 2018. Namibia won in 2015 and have kept reaching finals since, and Angola have Depú leading the line: Depú scored 5 goals in 2024 and 8 in 2025.

The smaller nations give the tournament much of its charm. Comoros took third place and Madagascar fourth in 2025, Lesotho reached the 2023 final, and Botswana played in the 2019 final, all of which shows that a side outside the usual winners can reach the final or the medal places. For supporters of those countries, the cup is a realistic stage for a medal, and a strong group stage is usually what changes a team's fortunes here.

For Nigerian readers, a useful habit is to note that Nigeria is not among the seven invited non member nations, which are DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Senegal. Ghana, Kenya and Uganda have all come in as guests, and Senegal's run to the 2021 final shows that a West African side can travel south and compete for the title.

Where Is the COSAFA Cup Played, and How Can You Watch It?

The COSAFA Cup moves to wherever COSAFA awards each edition, and South Africa hosted the 2025 tournament, which Angola won. The venue for each match appears in the fixtures module beside the date and the four kick off times, and the broadcast listing for each match sits alongside them.

The broadcaster for each market is listed as data alongside the fixtures rather than written into the copy, so it is worth checking that listing before every match. If you like a view before kick off, the Cosafa Cup predictions page gives each match as a call with a probability and a reference price, and it is a reading of the odds rather than a promise of any result.

Why Does South Africa Play an A' Side in the COSAFA Cup?

South Africa's A' side is a separate national squad from the full Bafana Bafana team. It won the 2021 final on penalties against Senegal and reached the 2025 final as hosts, which shows how competitive the A' side has been in this tournament.

The title count does not separate the two squads, so the A' side's win in 2021 sits inside South Africa's total of 5. That matters when you compare nations, because South Africa have reached recent finals with the A' side. If you want to understand what a South African result means, check whether the senior side or the A' side played, since the fixtures and results modules carry the team name as entered.

How Did the COSAFA Cup Begin?

The COSAFA Cup began in 1997, and Zambia are listed as its first winners. Tanzania, one of the invited nations, finished fourth in that opening edition, which shows that guests have been part of the story from the start. Since then the cup has been played most years, with the format and the host changing as COSAFA has seen fit, and it has grown into the regular meeting point for the national teams of the south.

There have been interruptions and changes of name along the way. The 2010 edition was set for Angola but was cancelled after COSAFA said the hosting guarantees were not in place, and Eswatini played as Swaziland until 2018. Through it all, the honours board has kept a familiar shape, with Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola sharing most of the titles and Namibia's 2015 win standing as the reminder that the list can grow.

If you are new to the COSAFA Cup, start with the fixtures module and set the kick off column to your own zone, whether that is WAT, EAT, SAST or GMT. Then open the table once the groups begin and read the results in date order after each matchday, so you can see how each group is shifting. Keep the finals table and the scoring records nearby, because a new name on either list is usually the first sign of a nation on the rise.