Raymond Mdaka set to name South Africa Under-20 COSAFA squad

South Africa Under-20 coach Raymond Mdaka is ready to announce the final squad for the COSAFA Championship in Mozambique, which begins on Friday.

Mdaka has already selected a 31-man preliminary group but has delayed confirming the players who will represent South Africa, known as Amajita, in the tournament.

The coach says the final selection has been affected by the demands facing some of his players, with a number of them preparing for their matric exams while others have commitments with their clubs.

Mdaka said releasing a larger preliminary group had been necessary because the COSAFA Championship falls outside the FIFA calendar, meaning clubs are not automatically required to release their players.

“I think the intention to release the preliminary list earlier was us looking into the challenges of COSAFA, in terms of it being outside the FIFA calendar, and making sure that if we’re caught up somewhere, we have a pool where we can always go back to, to check who can be able to be available for the team,” Mdaka told the media.

He also highlighted the academic commitments of the players eligible for this year’s tournament.

“Also, the issue of the exams… Most of those who qualify for this edition are doing matric and so on,” he said.

The coach added that discussions with clubs had contributed to the slower process of finalising the squad.

“But other than that, we started slowly because of the number of players that were there, because we had to discuss with teams. Others would say, ‘Can you allow us to release the player after this game?’” he said.

Mdaka said the coaching staff had been able to manage those difficulties while assessing the players available to them.

“But we afforded that based on the qualities that we have seen, on what we wanted to end up having in the team,” he added.

South Africa have been drawn in Group B alongside Angola, Lesotho and Eswatini.

The COSAFA Championship will continue until 27 September and also serves as a route to the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.

South Africa are the defending champions of the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.