Nigerians everywhere
Fate has decreed that the three Egyptian clubs playing in African football championships will all be facing Nigerian squads. Eric Asomugha sees whether the unusual draw is good or bad
For the first time, the three remaining Egyptian clubs in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) inter-clubs competitions will face strictly Nigerian opponents in the second phase beginning in August. Two will meet directly in the quarter-finals while the third will play in the same group in a round robin system. The draw for the competitions was released this month by CAF.
In the two quarter-finals, Ahli face Enugu Rangers for the CAF Cup, while Baladia Al-Mehalla meet Julius Berger for the African Cup Winners Cup. Egypt's only representative in the Champions League, Ismaili, after the surprise elimination of Zamalek by Simba of Tanzania, is in the same group with Enyimba of Aba.
Egypt has been one of the forces in Africa at club level football. Despite the average performance of the national teams, Egypt has claimed every title at club level, 21 in total, not including three Afro-Asian championships.
The achievement cuts across several clubs in Egypt with Zamalek leading the pack with nine titles and two Afro-Asian Cups. Ahli, selected the best African team of the 20th century, has eight titles and one Afro-Asian Cup, the Arab Contractors three titles and Ismaili one.
Other Egyptian representatives in African club competitions which have failed to win a championship are Ghazl Al-Mehalla, Ittihad, Mansoura, Misri, Tersana and Olympic. Out of these, Ghazl Al-Mehalla is the only club to have lost an African cup in the final, losing 2-1 at home and 4-2 away to Cara of Congo Brazzaville in the 1974 Champions League.
Ismaili is in Group A of the next phase of the Champions League with Enyimba, Simba and Asec of Cote D'Ivoir. Ismaili's first test is an away match with Asec before confronting Enyimba. Their last match in the first round will be against Simba, the club that eliminated Zamalek.
The winners of the Champions Leagues go home with $1 million and the runner-up $700,000. Each of the semi-finalists earns $450,000. The third and fourth placed team in each group earns $270,000 and $200,000 respectively.
For Ahli, who are chasing their first African title since winning the Champions League in 2001, the CAF Cup is the only trophy missing in their array of African titles. The Egyptian club is playing in the competition for the first time ever and fans are expecting nothing less than the trophy, which will be the last championship in CAFs calendar year.
The last time Ahli met Rangers was in the 1982 Champions League semi-finals, which Ahli won 4-0 in Cairo and lost 1-0 in Nigeria. The scorers were Khaled Gadallah, Mokhtar Mokhtar and Mahmoud El-Khatib who scored twice.
To get to this stage, Ahli, which was exempted from the preliminary stage, defeated Al-Nasr of Libya 2-1 in Benghazi and 2-0 in Cairo.
In the African Cup Winners Cup, Baladia, making a first continental appearance, hope to continue their magical performance of surprising their opponents when victory seems to be slipping away. They came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Helal of Sudan 4-2 at home before forcing the Sudanese to an away goalless draw. They then trashed Police of Uganda 4-1 in Mehalla after which they forced them to a goalless draw in Uganda.
Starting from the 2004 season, the CAF Cup and Cup Winners Cup will merge to form a new competition called the CAF Confederations Cup.
