CAF Confederation Cup
CAF CONFEDERATION CUP: ENYIMBA START GROUP STAGE IN MOROCCO; RANGERS AT HOME
BY MUYIWA AKINTUNDE
When the group stage of this season’s CAF Confederation Cup kicks off on December 1, Nigerian champions Enyimba will be away to Morocco’s Hassania Agadir, while Rangers, who were knocked out at the group phase last year, will host another north African team, Pyramids FC of Egypt.
The draw for the group phase of the continent’s second tier club competition had earlier been conducted at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, placing Enyimba in Group D and Rangers in Group A.
Enyimba, CAF Champions League winners in 2003 and 2004, also have in Group D FC San Pédro (Côte d’Ivoire) and Paradou AC (Algeria). The Ivorien side will host the encounter against the Algerian club.
Mauritania’s FC Nouadhibou will be at home against Al-Masry SC of Egypt in Group A where Rangers feature. .
In the other groups, Horoya of Guinea, winners of CAF Cup Winners Cup in 1978 and veterans of the continent’s club competitions, will be away to South Africa’s Bidvest Wits on Matchday 1 in Group B, while Al-Nasr SC (Libya) will welcome Mali’s Djoliba at a venue to be determined later.
In Group C, last year’s finalists Morocco’s RS Berkane will be at home to Benin Republic’s ESAE on Matchday 1, on the same day Zambia’s Zanaco FC will be away to Daring Club Motema Pembe in DR Congo.
The group stage will be concluded on March 6, next year with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals.
Enyimba were the last Nigerian team to advance beyond the group stage of this competition. And that was in 2018 when the People’s Elephant reached the semifinals but lost 1-3 aggregate to eventual winners Raja Casablanca.
Matchday 1
Group A:
Rangers (Nigeria) v Pyramids FC (Egypt)
FC Nouadhibou (Mauritania) v Al-Masry SC (Egypt)
Group B:
Bidvest Wits (South Africa) v Horoya (Guinea)
Al-Nasr SC (Libya) v Djoliba SC (Mali)
Group C:
RS Berkane (Morocco) v ESAE (Benin Republic)
Daring Club Motema Pembe (DR Congo) v Zanaco FC (Zambia)
Group D:
Hassania Agadir (Morocco) v Enyimba (Nigeria)
FC San Pédro (Côte d’Ivoire) v Paradou AC (Algeria)
Matchday 2
Group A:
Al-Masry SC v Rangers
Pyramids FC v FC Nouadhibou
Group B:
Djoliba SC v Bidvest Wits
Horoya v Al-Nasr SC
Group C:
Zanaco FC v RS Berkane
ESAE v Daring Club Motema Pembe
Group D:
Enyimba v Paradou AC
Hassania Agadir v FC San Pédro
Matchday 3
Group A:
Rangers v FC Nouadhibou
Pyramids FC v Al-Masry SC
Group B:
Bidvest Wits v Al-Nasr SC
Horoya v Djoliba SC
Group C:
RS Berkane v Daring Club Motema Pembe
ESAE v Zanaco FC
Group D:
Hassania Agadir v Enyimba
Paradou AC v FC San Pédro
Matchday 4
Group A:
FC Nouadhibou v Rangers
Al-Masry SC v Pyramids FC
Group B:
Al-Nasr SC v Bidvest Wits
Djoliba SC v Horoya
Group C:
Daring Club Motema Pembe v RS Berkane
Zanaco FC v ESAE
Group D:
Enyimba v Hassania Agadir
FC San Pédro v Paradou AC
Matchday 5:
Group A: Pyramids FC v Rangers
Al-Masry SC v FC Nouadhibou
Group B:
Horoya v Bidvest Wits
Djoliba SC v Al-Nasr SC
Group C:
ESAE v RS Berkane
Zanaco FC v Daring Club Motema Pembe
Group D:
Enyimba v Hassania Agadir
Paradou AC v FC San Pédro
Matchday 6
Group A: Rangers v Al-Masry SC
FC Nouadhibou v Pyramids FC
Group B:
Bidvest Wits v Djoliba SC,
Al-Nasr SC v Horoya
Group C:
RS Berkane v Zanaco FC
Daring Club Motema Pembe v ESAE
Group D:
Paradou AC v Enyimba
FC San Pédro v Hassania Agadir
—
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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