COSAFA has announced that they will introduce VAR but only from the semi-final stage of the COSAFA Women Championship taking place in Gauteng, South Africa from the 4th to the 15th October 2023.
The regional football body also say they intend to roll out VAR to all other COSAFA competitions in future.
The Gladiators are drawn in Group C with Botswana (6th Oct), Zimbabwe (9th Oct) and Lesotho (11th Oct).
Namibia were semifinalists in the Women’s Championship last year but narrowly lost 1-0 to hosts South Africa, before a 2-1 defeat to Tanzania in the third-place play-off.
It was still their best showing for many a year as they finished runner-up in their pool behind Zambia with two wins against Eswatini (5-1) and Lesotho (2-0).
Namibia has seven previous appearances at the COSAFA Women’s Championships when they turned out in 2006, 2008, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.
In their first showing in 2006 they claimed an excellent 2-2 draw with Zambia and then thumped Eswatini 6-0 in the pool stages, enough to see them into the semifinals as runners-up in their group.
