Sports
Tension Mounts As CAF Club Draws Hold
The groups for the CAF Champions League and the playoff round ties for the CAF Confederation Cup will be revealed today when the Confederation of African Football holds a glittering draw in Egypt.
This event will take place at the Hilton Pyramids Resort, 6th October City just outside of Cairo. The 16 teams which have progressed into the group phase of the Champions League are arranged into pots according to their ranking (based on performances in CAF competitions in recent years), with one team drawn from each of the four divisions and placed into a group (four groups of four teams each).
In the Confederation Cup, the 16 teams which have progressed through the first two preliminary rounds will be paired against a team which lost in the second preliminary round of the Champions League. Again a seeding system is derived using CAF rankings.
However, the exact line-up for each draw is yet to be 100 percent finalised as CAF’s decision regards to the Champions League last 32 tie between Zamalek (Egypt) and Generation Foot (Senegal) is being awaited as at press time.
The Senegalese team held a 2-1 lead from the first leg of their tie against the White Knights, but refused to fulfil the return game on the final weekend of September when CAF, at late notice, shifted the date and venue of the return game.
This led to a 3-0 win being awarded to Zamalek, who have been bracketed into the Champions League draw as a result, but CAF said they are investigating the issue, with Generation Foot threatening to take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Regardless, the draw promises to be an engrossing affair, as we find out the fate of continental heavyweights such as current Champions League title holders Esperance de Tunis, Egyptian giants Zamalek and DR Congo’s imperious TP Mazembe, right down to a club like TS Galaxy, a second-tier South African side which has enjoyed a fairytale run into the playoff round of the Confederation Cup and stand just 180 minutes away from the lucrative group stages.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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