CAF Confederation Cup

CAF CONFEDERATION CUP: ENYIMBA, RANGERS AWAIT GROUP OPPONENTS

Published

5 years ago

November 12, 2019

BY MUYIWA AKINTUNDE.

Enyimba and Rangers will know their opponents in the group stage of this season’s CAF Confederation Cup. The draw comes up at 11am (Nigerian time) this Tuesday at CAF headquarters in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, with 16 teams in the hat.

The sides will be placed in three pots and allocated into four groups of four teams each.

Given the current ranking of the clubs, reigning NPFL champions Enyimba are in Pot 1, while Aiteo (Federation) Cup winners Rangers will be in Pot 2.

Since their are no federation restrictions at this stage of the competition, there is the possibility of the Nigerian teams in the same group. The same situation will apply to Morocco and Egypt who have teams in different pots.

Seeded along with Enyimba in Pot 1 are Guinea’s Horoya, RS Berkane (Morocco) and Al-Masry SC (Egypt).

Enyimba lifted the CAF Champions League in 2003 and 2004. Their best outing in the Confederation Cup was semifinal appearance in 2018.

Horoya had won the CAF Cup Winners Cup in 1978 and had featured in the glamorous CAF Champions League nine times, not going beyond the quarterfinals though.

The Moroccan side RS Berkane had an impressive run in the Confederation Cup last season reaching the final but losing to Zamalek 5-3 penalties after both legs deadlocked 1-1. Zamalek chose to feature in the Champions League this term rather than defend their title.

Egypt’s Al-Masry crashed out in the semifinal of the 2018 edition of this tournament.

In Pot 2 along with Rangers are Morocco’s Hassania Agadir,Zanaco FC (Zambia) and Mali’s Djoliba.

Pot 3 has the rest of the teams. These are: Pyramids FC(Egypt), FC San Pédro (Côte d’Ivoire), FC Nouadhibou (Mauritania), Al-Nasr SC (Libya), Paradou AC (Algeria), Daring Club Motema Pembe (DR Congo), Bidvest Wits (South Africa) and ESAE (Benin Republic)

The group phase kick offs in the weekend of November 29 to December 1 and ends in the weekend of March 6-8, 2020 with the top two teams in each group advancing to the quarterfinals.

No Nigerian club have ever won this competition 15 years after the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners’ Cup were merged to have the present format.

Shooting Stars, now a second division side, won the CAF Cup in 1992, while Bendel Insurance, also in that lower section, repeated the feat two years later.

In the African Cup Winners’ Cup, which was introduced in 1975, three Nigerian teams achieved the height as champions –Shooting Stars (1976), Rangers (1977) and BCC Lions (1990).

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CAF Confederation Cup

CAF draw brings Nigeria again against Benin Republic

Published

2 weeks ago

July 11, 2024

Kunle Solaja

El Kanemi Warriors to face Dadje of Benin Republic

After Nigeria and Benin have been drawn together together in the 2026 World Cup qualifying as well as that of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, another CAF draw has pitched the two teams together.

El-Kanemi will face Dadje of Benin Republic in the opening round of the CAF Confederation Cup. Nigeria’s second team, Enyimba FC are exempted from the first round.

The eight time Nigerian champions will face the winner of Hafia versus Rahimo of Burkina Faso.

CAF Confederation Cup

Enyimba exempted from Preliminary round as El-Kanemi fall in Pot 1 of Confederation Cup draw

Published

2 weeks ago

July 10, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Enyimba FC have drawn bye in the preliminary stage of the CAF Confederation Cup which draw will hold in Cairo on Thursday. The Nigerian team is among the 12 highest ranked teams in the competition.

Nigeria’s other representative are in Pot 1 along with 12 other clubs. The CAF Confederation Cup have 52 clubs representing 41 countries.

After the 12 exempted clubs, the remaining 40 clubs shall play in the preliminary round which consist of three ranked clubs and 37 non-ranked clubs according to the official clubs ranking.

Three pots of the 37 non-ranked teams are created considering their geographical proximity. The exempted teams and the ranked teams are distributed geographically.

CAF Confederation Cup

EXCLUSIVE! Abia Warriors’ Federation Cup loss saves Enyimba from CAF Confederation Cup disqualification

Published

4 weeks ago

June 30, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Enyimba saved by Abia Warriors loss at the President Federation Cup

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Had Abia Warriors won the President Federation Cup in tie with El-Kanemi Warriors on Saturday, Enyimba FC would have been disqualified from the CAF Confederation Cup.

Entry for the registration for both Confederation Cup and the CAF Champions League close this Sunday.

Sources at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) informed Sports Village Square that the eligibility code for any of the inter-clubs competitions, does not allow two clubs owned fully or partially by the same person or body to feature in the same competition.

Both Enyimba FC and Abia Warriors are known to be owned and funded by the Abia State Government.

Had Abia Warriors prevailed over El-Kanemi, they too, like Enyimba would have qualified for the Confederation Cup.

Like in UEFA clubs competitions, CAF would not have allowed teams owned fully or partially by the same body to feature in the same competition. In this case, the CAF Confederation Cup.

It would be a different issue, if one of the two were to be competing in the Champions League and the other in the Confederation Cup.

This is stated in Section L.03 of Article 55 of the CAF Men’s Licensing Regulations (2022 edition).

In accordance with the Regulations of CAF Confederation Cup which give precedence to the national cup winner over the third placed teams of the league in case of countries that qualified to enter two teams, the sacrificial lamb would have been Enyimba, whose position would have been taken by the next available team, Shooting Stars who placed fourth on the log.

It was partly in accordance to the Section IV of the CAF Confederation Cup Regulations (ENGAGEMENTS) that enabled the fourth placed Kwara United engaged in the 2022 edition as the entry closed while the Nigerian national cup was still at the quarter-final stage.