CAF Champions League
Danger Signals for Nigerian Clubs at CAF Competitions
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The just concluded Nigeria Professional Football League season 2016/17 may be the last to produce three continental competitors if the trio of Plateau United, MFM and Enyimba as well as the eventual winners of the AITEO Cup failed to make appreciable impact in the 2018 CAF inter clubs competitions.
For many years now, Nigeria along with 11 other countries whose leagues are rated among the top 12 in the continent have the privilege of fielding two clubs in each of CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.
The top 12 are decided based on a five-year ranking conducted since 2004. CAF uses this to determine the number of clubs each affiliated national league association is eligible to enter in both Champions league and Confederation Cup for a particular term.
The 12 best ranked national league associations in Africa were privileged to field two clubs in both CAF Champions league and Confederation Cup. Sports Village Square has gathered that based on the current ranking which CAF has not officially released, the poor performances of Enugu Rangers, FC IfeanyiUbah, Nasarawa United and to some extent, Rivers United in the CAF inter clubs competitions this season, Nigeria is dangerously ranked 12th – the last of among countries that can have multiple entries.
While Nigeria slipped in the football leagues’ ranking in the continent, Zambia, for instance jumped six steps up the ladder from joint 14th to ninth. Nigeria remains stagnant at 12th.
It now means that Zambia will for the first time ever have four clubs in the continents at the same time.
Poor performance by the Nigerian clubs in the coming season may see the country dropping out of the top 12 and only the NPFL champion will then be eligible to feature in the CAF Champions League.
Egypt remains top of the ranking for the 2018 CAF football league season. The country, which teams have dominated the CAF competitions, has 85 points as against Nigeria’s laughable 13. Tunisia with 76 points ranks next while DR Congo follows with 70 points.
In addition, Sports Village Square gathered that South Africa’s Danny Jordan, a CAF executive committee member is pushing for the top leagues like Egypt, Tunisia DR Congo, Algeria and South Africa which are among the top five should henceforth have four clubs in each of the two CAF clubs’ competitions. In essence, while Nigerian league may produce just one continental campaigner, leagues of each of those countries will each have eight clubs.
This is following a pattern already established by UEFA which allocates multiple slots for top European leagues like the English Premiership, Spanish La Liga and the Bundesliga.
“As you can see for both Egypt and South Africa they (CAF) have allocated four places in the Champions League and that is on the basis that these teams are strong, thriving and truly professional teams,” a Zambian football blog, quoted Jordan as saying.
In the ranking of top 40 clubs in Africa, only two Nigerian clubs, Enyimba in the 21st position and Sunshine Stars of Akure (32nd) are listed.
CAF Inter-Clubs Ranking For 2018
| Rank | Associations | 2012 (× 1) |
2013 (× 2) |
2014 (× 3) |
2015 (× 4) |
2016 (× 5) |
Total
Points |
|||||
| CL | CC | CL | CC | CL | CC | CL | CC | CL | CC | |||
| 1 | Egypt | 6 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 85 |
| 2 | Tunisia | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 76 |
| 3 | DR Congo | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 70 |
| 4 | Algeria | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 62 |
| 5 | South Africa | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 45 |
| 6 | Morocco | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 41 |
| 7 | Sudan | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 8 | Cote d’Ivoire | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| 9 | Zambia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 18 |
| 10 | Congo | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| 11 | Mali | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| 12 | Nigeria | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13 |
| 13 | Cameroon | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 14 | Libya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 15 | Ghana | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 16 | Tanzania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 17 | Angola | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 18 | Ethiopia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Nigeria’s sole survivor into the second round of the CAF Champions League, Enugu Rangers have crashed out of the competition. They lost 3-1 to Angola’s Sagrada Esperança this Sunday in Luanda.
The aggregate scoreline is 3-2 as Rangers last weekend won their home game 1-0. Sagrada Esperança opened the game with offensive and got their first goal barely six minutes into the game when Alexandre Fernando found the back of the net.
The hosts doubled their lead in the 33rd minute through Mussa. But four minutes later, Enugu Rangers reduced the tally to 2-1 to carry an away goal advantage into half time.
Jamie Pimpao got the much needed goal for Angola in the 67th minute to seal the hopes of Rangers.
Sagrada Esperança will now go into next month’s draw for the draw of the group stage.
CAF Champions League 2nd Preliminary Round action resumed on Saturday, 14 September following the resumption of the Africa’s premium club competition on Friday.
It was mostly the travelling teams that secured victories away from home on Saturday, who put themselves in fairly comfortable situations ahead of the return leg next week.
Orlando Pirates had a mental obstacle to overcome in Gaborone against Jwaneng Galaxy, having to face the same side that eliminated them in the same phase of the competition last season.
The former champions secured a 2-0 victory in Gaborone to put themselves in a comfortable position ahead of the return leg next weekend.
Five-time champions, TP Mazembe were away to Red Arrows in Zambia where they also put two past their hosts ahead of the return leg in Lubumbashi.
Mamelodi Sundowns, who played their away match in the comfort of their home stadium against Swaziland’s Mbabane Swallows made use of home ground advantage with a comfortable 4-0 win over their neighbours.
Tanzanian champions, Young Africans secured a hard-fought 1-0 win over CBE SA of Rwanda as Tanzanian giants continue to chase a continental title.
It was a rather tough outing for Moroccan outfit, AS FAR when they travelled to Sudan to face Al Merrikh. A highly entertaining encounter concluded with a 2-2 draw, ahead of the return leg in Morocco.
Egyptian side, Pyramids FC also played out to a draw when they were held 1-1 by APR FC in Rwanda.
Burkina Faso side, Association Sportive des Douanes out up an impressive showing when they edged Algeria’s CR Belouizdad by 1-0.
The first leg of the 2nd Preliminary Round concludes on Sunday, with five interesting encounters lined up, including reigning champions Al Ahly kick starting their title defense away from home.
TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Results & Fixtures:
Friday, 13 September
Enugu Rangers 1 – 0 Sagrada Esperanca
Monastir 0 – 1 MC Alger
Saturday, 14 September
CBE SA 0 – 1 Young Africans
Red Arrows 0 – 2 TP Mazembe
Al-Merrikh 2 – 2 AS FAR
Jwaneng Galaxy FC 0 – 2 Orlando Pirates FC
Maniema Union 2 – 1 Petro de Luanda
Djoliba 1 – 0 ASKO
Douanes 1 – 0 CR Belouizdad
Sunday, 15 September
12h00 GMT | Gor Mahia vs Al Ahly
15h00 GMT | Samartex vs Raja CA
16h00 GMT | San Pedro vs Al-Hilal
16h00 GMT | Dekedaha vs ES Tunis
19h00 GMT | Stade d’Abidjan vs Milo FC
The return leg fixtures of the 2nd Preliminary stage will be played between 20 – 22 September.
-CAF
Enugu Rangers’ patchy form in the CAF Champions League continues as they struggled to beat visiting Angola’s Sagrada Esperance 1-0 in the first leg match played at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
It was in similar fashion that they played against Union Sportive de Zilimadjou of Comoros Islands who they beat 2-1 over two legs in Uyo.
Rangers’ lone goal was scored by Kazeem Ogunleye in the 80th minute.
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