Tanzania unveil squad to face Bafana and feature in COSAFA tournament

Photo Credit - Tanzania Football Federation (TFF).

Tanzania head coach Hemed Suleiman has named a strong squad for Taifa Stars upcoming matches including the 2025 COSAFA tournament.

Taifa Stars will face Bafana Bafana of South Africa in a friendly at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo, on Friday, 6. After the friendly, they will shift focus to the 2025 CPSAFA tournament scheduled for June 4-15in Mangaung | Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Tanzania were invited to the tournament to replace Morocco and the East African nation will open their campaign on June 7 against Madagascar at the Toyota Stadium (kick-off 18h00 local time /16h00 GMT). They will then face Eswatini in their second pool game on June 11 at the same venue (kick-off 15h00 local time / 13h00 GMT).

Tanzania will see the competition as vital preparation for the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals they co-host with Kenya and Uganda in August.

Tanzania squad - Photo Credit TFF.

Like all the competing teams, they will use the opportunity to build towards the last two rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September, and the CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco that kick off at the end of the year.

Taifa Stars are no strangers to the COSAFA Cup having competed three times before, including in the inaugural year in 1997. They finished fourth on that occasion in what was a round-robin competition, drawing three of their four games.

Tanzania returned in 2015 but did not make it out of their pool, losing all three fixtures. They were back two years later and this time took the bronze medal, knockout hosts South Africa out in the quarter-finals. They lost 4-2 to Zambia in the semi-finals, but edged Lesotho on penalties to finish third.

Tanzania qualified for the CAF AFCON in both 2019 and 2023, having also featured all the way back in 1980.