Dr Desiree Ellis - WAFCON date delay hampers preparations

The South Africans are the defending champions after winning the title in Morocco in 2022. CAF has delayed with the announcement as the initial date, played around July/August, clashed with the 2024 Paris Olympic Games scheduled for the same period later this year.

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Although indications are that the WAFCON will be held before the year ends, Ellis says it is not helping with preparations.

  ''No, of course, it does hamper it a bit, but we just have to continue with our preparation you know, and when it does happen we would have started with our preparation.  But this is already part of the preparation, so if we knew who we were playing, it would make things easy because - we then select our opponents accordingly. But we can just continue, with our preparation and hope that we get an answer soon,'' said Ellis.

The African Champions have secured two away friendly matches against Senegal, scheduled to take place on May 31 and June 4. Ellis says the West Africans will help them with preparations.

''Look, we looked outside of Europe, it wasn't possible because of the qualifiers for Euros. Obviously Zambia and Morocco, very good opponents, but Senegal will give us the competition we need, they will give us a good test,'' added Ellis.

Ellis walked away with the 2023 COSAFA Coach of the Year award at the inaugural event held in Johannesburg on Thursday night, beating off the challenge of Zambia’s Bruce Mwape and Jerry Tshabalala of Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies.

''This one is a lot more special, my first one was as a player in 2002 at Cosafa and 15 years later I'm at the same venue as a coach. So Cosafa has played a major role in my development as a coach,'' concluded Ellis.

Ellis went on to congratulate shot stopper Andile Dlamini of Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies who was named the 2023 COSAFA Awards Goalkeeper of the Year ahead of Banyana Banyana teammate Kaylin Swart and Malawi’s Mercy Sikelo.