CAF Confederation Cup
WHO LIFT CAF CONFEDERATION CUP?
BY APESIN ADEMOLA.
The first of two legs to determine the champions of Africa’s second tier club competition holds at the 45,000 capacity Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca.
Nigerians will understandably support DR Congo’s AS Vita Club to lift the title; their opponents Raja Casablanca being responsible for the exit of Enyimba in the semifinals on 3-1 aggregate.
Going down memory lane also, it was a Moroccan team (FAR Rabat) that denied Dolphins the CAF Confederation Cup in 2005. Dolphins, which have since been merged with Sharks to form Rivers United, pipped FAR 1-0 in Port Harcourt on November 6 of that year but got humiliated 3-0 in Rabat 13 days later.
DR Congo have also incurred the wrath of Nigerians. TP Mazembe inflicted pains on a Nigerian club in the final of a continental club competition.
In the 2009 edition of CAF Champions League, TP Mazembe denied Heartland the opportunity of becoming the second Nigerian team to win the CAF Champions League after Enyimba’s back-to-back victories in 2003 and 2004. In the first leg at the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri, Heartland managed to win 2-1. Losing the reverse fixture 0-1 in Lubumbashi, meant that TP Mazembe won that title for the third time on away goal advantage.
AS Vita Club’s journey in Africa this year started at the CAF Champions League where they bundled out Malawi’s Mighty Wanderers 6-1 at the preliminary round but lost 2-3 aggregate to Morocco’s Difaâ Hassani d’el-Jadida 2-3 to be relegated to the Confederation Cup.
In the playoff, AS Vita Club, the current champions of the Linafoot (DR Congo’s top flight league), walloped neighbouring Congo Republic’s La Mancha 6-1 aggregate and were paired with tonight’s opponents Raja Casablanca in the group stage.
In the first leg in Casablanca, both sides played goalless, while AS Vita Club prevailed at home 2-0 in the return match. Raja however won the group, while AS Vita Club qualified for the quarterfinals as runners-up.
Another Moroccan team RS Berkane were Vita Club’s victims in the quarterfinals which they won 4-2, while Al-Masry of Egypt fell 0-4 in the last four.
This is Vita Club’s first time in the final of any CAF club tournament since winning the 1973 African Cup of Champions Clubs. They will be seeking to keep the CAF Confederation Cup at home as TP Mazembe were champions last year following a successful defence of the title they won the previous year.
Raja, on their part, have three CAF Champions League and one Confederation Cup shields in their trophy cabinet.
The Moroccan club eliminated FC Nouadhibou of Mauritania and Zambia’s Zanaco on their way to the group stage of the competition. Having won Group A that included AS Vita Club, Raja knocked out CARA Brazzaville of Congo Republic 3-1 in the quarterfinals before coming to Enyimba International Stadium, Aba to beat the home side 1-0 and consolidated 2-1 in Casablanca.
The winners of the Confederation Cup this year will have achieved a first for their home association as it will field three teams as against the maximum two in the 2018/19 edition.
As a result of the abridged nature of the 2018/19 CAF club tournaments, the identify of the 2018 CAF Confederation Cup winners was not known when the draw was conducted on November 3 ahead of the preliminary round which starts next Tuesday.
With AS Vita Club having already qualified for the Champions League, SM Sanga Balende, the fourth placed side in the 2017/18 domestic league in DR Congo, will be listed in the 2018/19 CAF Confederation Cup if their compatriots overcome Raja Casablanca. They will join DC Motema Pembe and AS Nyuki as DR Congo’s contingent to the competition. But while those other teams will start from the preliminary round, SM Sanga Balende will receive a bye into the first round.
The same situation will apply if Raja lift the CAF Confederation Cup. Unlike AS Vita Club however, Raja have failed to qualify for any CAF competition but will go straight to the first round of the next Confederation Cup if they win the current edition, the same stage RS Berkane, another Moroccan representatives, will start their CAF Confederation Cup journey. What will them be Morocco’s third team Hassania Agadir will line up at the preliminary stage.
Fixture…
CAF Confederation Cup (Final first leg): Raja Casablanca (Morocco) v AS Vita Club (DR Congo) (8pm)
CAF Confederation Cup
CAF adjudges Morocco’s Youssef Mehri’s goal as the fastest in football history
Moroccan club, Renaissance de Berkane, beat their Algerian counterparts, CS Constantine, 4-0 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals at the weekend.
The game got off to a dream start for the Moroccan club as it took Youssef Mehri less than a minute to open the scoring in the big win against the Algerians.
Officially, the goal is recorded to have been scored after 13 seconds.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CAF remarks: “Youssef Mehri goes straight into the history books. The RS Berkane striker scores the fastest goal ever scored in the CAF Cup.”
A deeper search by Sports Village Square indicates that a Nigerian player, Paul Onuachu, had previously scored a faster goal, but not in a CAF Cup duel.
The basketball player-like footballer scored his first international goal in a 1-0 defeat of Egypt on 26 March 2019.
The goal inflicted Nigeria’s first defeat on Egypt in 29 years. But more significant was the timing of the goal. Onuachu, within eight seconds of kick-off, undoubtedly entered the record books as the second fastest goal in international football records after that of Germany’s Lukas Podolsk, who scored after six seconds in a friendly against Ecuador in 2013.
Fans had hardly settled down at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba for the Nigeria versus Egypt match when Onuachu released a thunderous shot that turned out to be the match’s decider.
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The Renaissance Sportive de Berkane delegation will travel to Algeria this Friday to face CS Constantine in the CAF Cup. Tension may be building up for the potentially explosive confrontation that could have a build-up from last year’s fixtures of the Moroccan club and another Algerian outfit, USM Algiers, in the CAF Confederation Cup.
A Moroccan news outlet, Sport.le360, reports that a Tunisian airline will operate the direct flight between Oujda-Angad Airport, which is located about 12 kilometres north of Oujda and about 600 kilometres northeast of Casablanca, near the Algerian border and Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport.
Last year, political differences between Morocco and Algeria scuttled similar semi-final clashes between clubs of both countries.
Join the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday ruled in favour of the Algerian football federation in a row over a map of Morocco on shirts worn by Renaissance Berkane in the 2024 CAF Confederation Cup.
Algerian club USM Alger were kicked out of last year’s competition after both legs of their semi-final against Berkane were cancelled because of a diplomatic dispute.
Neither match took place as USMA and the Algerian authorities objected to a map of Morocco on the Berkane shirts which included Western Sahara.
Algeria cut diplomatic ties with North African neighbours Morocco in 2021, partly over the Western Sahara issue.
The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks the territory’s independence.
The Confederation of African Football awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory for both legs of the semi-final.
CAF at the time responded to an appeal by the Algerian FA by ruling in favour of Berkane, saying the club had been wearing the same jerseys since the start of the tournament.
But the Algerian FA took the case to sport’s highest court in Switzerland, which determined that the shirts in question were “contrary to CAF regulations, as they display a territorial map that is of a political nature.”
“The image of a map of Morocco including Western Sahara on the shirts of RS Berkane depicts a message, a demonstration or propaganda of a political nature as it represents the assertion of a territorial dispute that is contested and still unresolved as of today,” CAS said in a statement.
“By the laws of the game of the International Football Association Board, it is prohibited to convey any content of a political nature on all equipment, including shirts.”
CAS added that the initial decision by CAF to “maintain the approval of the shirts is annulled”, but the court said that it would have no effect on the results of the tournament.
Egypt’s Zamalek beat Berkane on away goals in the final.
-AFP
Follow the Sports Village Square channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The league title will be icing on Soname’s birthday cake on Sunday
As major global sporting events beckon, Morocco’s monarch launches the Kenitra-Marrakech High-Speed rail project
Nigeria Premier League attains a crescendo this weekend
- WOMEN'S FOOTBALL1 week ago
Naira rain falls on Nigeria’s Flamingos after a 4-0 defeat of Algeria
- OBITUARY4 days ago
NFF mourns the demise of former FIFA referee, Bosede Momoh
- Nigerian Football2 days ago
Financial rainfall awaits Nigeria’s Flamingos for every goal scored in Algeria
- U-17 AFCON1 week ago
Morocco crowned CAF U-17 AFCON champions after dramatic penalty shootout win over Mali
- U-20 FOOTBALL7 days ago
Nigeria begin CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations title chase with Tunisian clash
- Nigerian Football6 days ago
Remo Stars maintain ‘7Up’ lead over Rivers United
- feature4 days ago
Ghana’s Cardinal, Appiah Turkson, listed as a possible Pope
- Nigerian Football3 days ago
Former WAFU President, Ogufere mourns Christian Chukwu