CAF Confederation Cup
Rivers United in action as part of Confederation Cup Super Sunday
The return of CAF Inter-Club competitions officially resumes this week, as clubs from across the continent kick off their quest for continental glory.
With the CAF Champions League resuming this Friday, a jam-packed Sunday is on the cards for eight mouth-watering encounters in the CAF Confederation Cup.
With the official draw pitting the 16-teams into their respective groups of four, it is now down to the two-legged group matches to determine who will advance to the knockout stages of the competition.
Kicking off the action on Sunday afternoon will be Modern Future, who welcome South African outfit, SuperSport United to Egypt. United are led by former Kaizer Chiefs coach, Gavin Hunt who guided them to the CAF Champions League final in 2021.
A fixture running concurrently on Sunday afternoon will be in Tunis when Club Africain plays host to Ghana’s Dream FC.
Later in the evening, Egyptian giants Zamalek, who lifted the CAF Confederation Cup title in 2019, welcome Libyan side Abu Salem in another fixture taking place in Egypt on Sunday.
In Nigeria, Rivers United who are the only club left to fly the Nigerian flag in this season’s CAF Inter-Club competition plays host to Academica do Lobito of Angola in a late afternoon fixture, as they face a side that is looking at making a name for itself on the continent.
Another late afternoon tie takes place in Congo as Diables Noirs faces Stade Malien of Mali.
Concluding the Super Sunday fixtures will be two contests taking place in the northern part of the continent.
In Algeria, USM Alger welcomes Al Hilal Benghazi of Libya – side that has shown tremendous improvement in continental football over the last few seasons.
A north versus south tie will then sum up the fixtures in Morocco, as former champions RS Berkane welcome South African debutants, Sekhukhune United.
CAF Confederation Cup Fixtures | Sunday, 26 November:
13h00 GMT | Modern Future vs SuperSport United
13h00 GMT | Club Africain vs Dreams FC
16h00 GMT | Zamalek FC vs Abu Salem
16h00 GMT | Segrada Esperanca vs CO Coyah
16h00 GMT | Rivers United vs Academica do Lobito
16h00 GMT | Diables Noirs vs Stade Malien
19h00 GMT | USM Alger vs Al Hilal Benghazi
19h00 GMT | RS Berkane vs Sekhukhune United
CAF Confederation Cup Groups:
GROUP A: Al Hilal Benghazi, Modern Future, SuperSport United, USM Alger
GROUP B: Abu Salem, CO Coyah, Segrada Esperanca, Zamalek
GROUP C: Academica do Lobito, Club Africain, Dreams FC, Rivers United
GROUP D: Diables Noirs, RS Berkane, Sekhukhune United, Stade Malien
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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