The draw for the 2017 COSAFA Under-20 will be held today at COSAFA House in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The draw is scheduled to start at 11 am. Twelve teams will participate at this year edition including guest nations Egypt and Uganda.

There will be three groups with the winners of each group automatically advancing to the semi finals. The best runner up will be the fourth team in the round.

Zambia will be placed in Group A, while South Africa, who finished runners-up in 2016 will occupy Group B. Angola take their place as the third seeded team having finished fourth last year, with bronze-medalists DR Congo not taking part in this championship.

The other nine teams will be divided into two pots. The top four ranked sides will be in the same pot while the remaining five nations will seeded in another pot. North African guest nation Egypt, Lesotho, Mauritius and Swaziland occupy the first pot, with Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia and East African challengers Uganda in the other.

These teams have been ranked based on their performance at the 2016 COSAFA Under-20 Championships and/or the 2017 African Youth Championships.

Matches will be played at the Arthur Davies and Nkana stadiums, with the opener set for the former venue on December 6 between the teams placed in A2 and A4 (kick-off 11h30).

Angola will also be in action on the opening day against the team positioned C3 (kick-off 14h30), while Zambia then take the spot-light against the team positioned A3 in the late kick-off at 17h30.

The group stage will be completed on December 12, followed by a rest day, with the semifinals to be staged at the Arthur Davies Stadium on December 14.

The third-place play-off and the final will move to the Levy Mwanawasa in Ndola on December 16. COSAFA