Tura Magic’s women’s football team are hoping for a favourable draw for the inaugural Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Women’s Champions League on Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The chairperson of Tura Magic Sports Club, Ngolombe Paulus, told Nampa on Monday they are hoping to avoid teams from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe at the draw.

“We can try our luck with teams from Botswana and eSwatini under the current conditions in our country. Mamelodi Sundowns is a bit too strong for us in terms of development and availability of resources to prepare our ladies,” Paulus said.

He added that they would soon meet as a club to discuss how they will approach the tournament, but they have plans on how to assemble and train the team.

Paulus added that ideally, they would like to camp so as to give the players the right support as they attempt to test their mettle against the best in the region.

The draw for the inaugural edition of the Cosafa Women’s Champions League will be held on Thursday, when the seven competing teams will hope to win a place at the TOTAL CAF Women’s Champions League later this year.

The tournament will take place from 26 August to 04 September, with the host city for the competition also set to be unveiled as the champions from women’s domestic leagues across the region fight it out for top honours in Cosafa’s first-ever club tournament.

Seven teams have confirmed their participation and these are South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, Double Action Ladies (Botswana), Manzini Wanderers LFC (Eswatini), Lesotho Defence Force (Lesotho), Tura Magic (Namibia), Green Buffaloes FC (Zambia) and Black Rhinos Queens FC (Zimbabwe).

The teams will be split into two groups, one with four sides and the other three, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the semi-finals.

The Cosafa Women’s Champions League will also serve as a qualification for the first-ever Confederation of African Football Women’s Champion League, which is due to be staged later in the year.

Source: Namibia Press Agency