The inaugural COSAFA Awards were held in Johannesburg recently and brought out a galaxy of stars to celebrate our achievements as a football community in Southern Africa. There were many big winners on the night, not least the Mamelodi Sundowns quartet of Rulani Mokwena, Ronwen Williams, Thapelo Maseko and Andile Dlamini, as we honoured those who took our game to the next level in 2023.

COSAFA is about to embark on an exciting new era with the acquisition of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) equipment to both roll out at its tournaments and use as a teaching tool for training purposes for match officials on the continent. In this episode of The COSAFA Show, we chat to COSAFA Executive Director Sue Destombes and COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima about the way forward with VAR in the region.

Ashford Mamelodi is a leading administrator on the African continent who previously served as Secretary General at the Botswana Football Association and COSAFA. He was also a FIFA Development Officer for many years. He has a book coming out soon called Protecting the Game, where he delves into his 10 years at the BFA and the lessons learned and experience gained from that period of his life.We sat down to discuss his career, starting out with why he decided to write his book.