Southern Africa’s regional championship, the Cosafa Cup, returns later this month under a new name, new format, and with a new country participating. The annual tournament was seemingly headed for the doldrums after losing its previous sponsor, Castle, but it has been hastily resuscitated.

The new and improved Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup will be formally launched on Thursday, as the competition enters its 12th successive year. Sponsorship is provided by the government of South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, where the tournament will be hosted. The field will be expanded to 14, with the entry of the Comoros Islands, and it will be played in a knockout format, in a bid to reduce costs.

The top six ranked countries–Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, will not participate in the first phase. The Comoros Islands, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and Swaziland will be drawn into two groups of four for the first phase of the tournament from July 19-24. There will be double-header matches on six successive days, and the top six teams will advance with the two group winners to the quarter-finals on July 26-27.

The semi-finals will be hosted at the Thulamahashe Stadium in Bushbuckridge on July 30 and the final will be played at the same venue on August 3. Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have each won the competition three times since it was first introduced in 1997. Defending champions South Africa first won the title in 2002.