Annual
soccer (
football to non-Americans)
tournament for southern African
national teams. The tournament is run by
COSAFA (
Council of Southern
African
Football Associations), and the lead
sponsor is Castle
lager. It has taken place annually since 1997.
COSAFA has 13 members, not a very good number for a tournament. However, Seychelles has not participated in recent years (lack of available info doesn't clarify if this is permanent) and due to requirements that participants must take part in FIFA World Cup qualifying and the African Cup of Nations, sometimes another team or two won't be eligible.
Regardless, the format of the tournament appears to be pretty consistent. There are 4 first round matches, 4 quarterfinal matches (with the 4 winners of the first round matches, along with several teams that receive byes, and if there's 10-11 teams the best losing teams from the first round), and then semifinals and finals.
All rounds are one game, and take place at one of the team's home stadia. However, the final is played over two legs (with one game played at each team's home field).
A list of the previous winners:
1997 Zambia
1998 Zambia
1999 Angola
2000 Zimbabwe
2001 Angola
2002 South Africa
Format note: COSAFA is usually written like that (in ALL CAPS), but on their site they mostly refer to the Cup in the manner that I have here (only first letter uppercase), with occasional reference to the "COSAFA Castle Cup" instead.
Source: www.cosafa.com