CAF Confederation Cup
Remo Stars jet out in ValueJet flight for Confederation Cup debut
Rave of the Moment, Remo Stars are set for their biggest match ever as they fly out for their debut continental match.
The Kunle Soname team of 20 players and 12 back-room staff members will depart Lagos aboard the club owner’s chattered flight, ValueJet on Saturday morning for their Sunday night potentially explosive match with one of the biggest Moroccan clubs, AS FAR.
It is the first time since 1 November 1987 that a club from Ogun State of Nigeria will be involved in a continental match. The last time an Ogun State team played a continental game was when Abiola Babes of Abeokuta played against Esperance of Tunisia in 1987.
Now for the first time in the history of the Sky blue stars, the coach Daniel Ogunmodede led side will be playing in Africa’s inter club competition, this time, the second tier, the CAF Confederation Cup.
Here are all you need to know about the soon to be a historic day for the club.
ROAD TO THE COMPETITION
Remo Stars finished third on the NPFL 2021/22 table to gain one of the two available CAF confederation cup slot in the country’s topflight league
OPPONENT
On the 9th of August, the CAF draws paired Remo Stars against Moroccan side, Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal (ASFAR) in the preliminary round.
ASFAR is a well known club for the success of its football section, very popular in and outside Morocco. The team has played its home matches in the 53,000 capacity Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in downtown Rabat since 1983.
ASFAR is one of the most successful clubs in Morocco with 30 titles in total: 12 Botolas, 12 Moroccan Throne Cups, 4 Moroccan Super Cups, 1 Botola 2, 1 African Champions League and 1 African Confederation Cup. They were the first Moroccan team to win the CAF Champions League in 1985.
VENUE
The Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Rabat, Morocco. It is named after Prince Moulay Abdellah of Morocco.
It is currently used mostly for football matches and it can also stage athletics. The stadium has an occupancy of 53,000 people.
The stadium was used for the final of the just-ended 12th Women Africa Cup of Nations finals.
TRAVELING TEAM
Twenty players with 12 backroom staffs, supporters, top club officials with selected journalists will fly to Morocco on Saturday aboard a ValueJet chattered flight via the Muritala Mohammed International Airport.
KICKOFF TIME
The first leg fixture will kickoff 8pm Nigeria time.
Due to CAF rules and regulation, our players will wear a replica of the 2022/23 new jersey but without the sponsors tag.
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.
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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.
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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
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