Nigerian Football
HOW ENYIMBA’S CONFEDERATION CUP FOES WILL EMERGE THIS MONDAY
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Followers of Nigeria’s most successful football club, Enyimba are anxiously awaiting the draw for the final stages of CAF inter-clubs competitions holding Monday evening at the 6 October City at the outskirt of Cairo in Egypt.
The quarter-final opponents will emerge and Enyimba, like the other clubs will get to know the path they have to pass through to be crowned as African champions.
The only club Enyimba are certain not to meet is CARA of Brazzaville, the club the Nigerian side used to mark their happy home return and a quarter-final ticket.
Procedurally, clubs from the same qualifying groups are set apart. Therefore, the potential quarter final foes for Enyimba are narrowed to six.
They are Al Masry SC (Egypt), AS Vita (DR Congo), Rayon Sports (Rwanda), Raja Casablanca (Morocco), RS Berkane (Morocco) and USM Alger (Algeria).
Any of the following six clubs are the possible quarter-final opponents for Enyimba: AS
According to the procedure, Enyimba are in Pot 4. The four clubs that qualified as second-placed in the groups are put in Pot 1. They are Al Masry SC (Egypt), AS Vita (DR Congo) and Rayon Sports (Rwanda).
Raja Casablanca are in Pot 2 while their fellow Moroccan sides, RS Berkane are in Pot 3.
According to the draw procedure, a ball will be picked from Pot 1 that contains the groups’ runners-up.
A ball from each of pots 2, 3 and 4 will then be picked with the exception that the pot that has the same team that played in the same group of the runner-up club will be skipped.
This is to avoid a repeat fixture. The three balls picked are then placed in an empty Pot 6.
The balls in Pot 6 will then be mixed in order to choose one ball with the name of the team who will face the runner up earlier draw.
The same process will be repeated three more times in order to determine the Quarterfinal 2, Quarterfinal 3 and Quarterfinal 4.
The procedure will be repeated for semi-finals match up and also that of the final.
As group leaders, Enyimba will play away first in the two-legged quarter-finals match-up.