The Motsepe Foundation, under the auspices of SA billionaire mining magnate and CAF president Patrice Motsepe, has donated a staggering $10-million (R200-million) for this year’s CAF African Schools Football Championships.
The total prize money for the boys and girls’ competitions includes a staggering R6-million for winners, R4-million for runners-up, and R3 million for third-placed teams.
South Africa returns to the schools’ continental finals for the third year in a row, having been ever-present at this stage of the competition.
The tournament will be hosted in Accra, Ghana, from April 21 to 26.
Ghana, the home of the Black Stars, has long been a hotbed of football development, with some of the greatest names in the African game having emerged from the passionate nation.
Ghana, Algeria, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda will be contesting for the boys’ trophy. The same countries will also cross swords in the girls’ competition.
SA’s 100% record in the competition
The SA boys competed as Clapham High School in the inaugural event staged in Durban in 2022/23 and finished runners-up before a group stage exit in last year’s competition in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
They return to the continental stage having made it a hat trick of wins in their zonal Cosafa championships, which were staged in Namibia in October 2024.
The SA girls are also returning to the annual competition for the third year in a row. They competed as Edendale Technical High School in their maiden appearance.
After storming to victory in the Cosafa qualifiers held in Malawi, they could not get out of the pool stages at the continental finals on home soil in Durban.
South Africa was crowned champion in both the boys and the girls regional competitions in Walvis Bay, Namibia.
The boys beat Zambia 4-2 on penalties after they had played to a 1-1 draw, while the girls had to come from behind to beat Malawi 3-1 in their decider.
This maintains South Africa’s 100% record in the competition, having won both the boys and the girls competitions in the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.
