Last week, the draw for the knockout stage of the African Champions League in Cairo brought forth strong contenders as the battle for the coveted prize in continental club football is just starting. Egypt's five-time winners Zamalek, who last won the competition in 2002, will face title holders Tunisia's Esperance. They will fight for a place in the last four of the premier continental club championship in another luscious two-legged clash in the last eight. On Friday 14 February the two clubs will also face each other in the Super Cup in Doha, Qatar which pits the African Champions League title holders and the winner of the second-tier African Confederation Cup. Meanwhile, Eight-time winners Egypt's Ahly will face South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns in a repeat of last year's quarters clash. The Red Devils will have a chance to avenge their humiliating defeat by Sundowns last season. Ahly and Sundowns met in the same stage last season, with the South Africans claiming a stunning 5-0 home victory in the first leg, handing the record eight-time champions their worst ever defeat in an African competition. The Red Devils won the second leg 1-0 but it was a mere consolation. Ahly, who won their last Champions League title in 2013, appear formidable on the domestic front as they won their first 12 matches with a swagger. However, they have not been as impressive in the group stage of the Champions League, failing to win any of their away matches. They still managed to finish second behind Tunisia's Etoile Sahel after a 1-1 draw away to Sudan's Al-Hilal in a tense match in the final round. Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has acknowledged that since Ahly seek revenge, Sundowns will face a difficult match. “We know Ahly pretty well. They're the most prestigious team in the continent. They're the club of the century, and they possess a great coach and great players,” Mosimane, the 55-year-old South African coach, said. “The draw might have put us against Zamalek, Rajaa, or Ahly. But it put us against Ahly, so we will begin our preparations for the game starting from today, because it needs a lot of work,” he added. DR Congo giants TP Mazembe will be up against Raja Club Athletic, while Etoile Sahel will have to contend with Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco. Former DR Congo forward Shabani Nonda, former Cote d'Ivoire defensive midfielder Didier Zokora and assisting CAF Director of Competitions Samson Adamu conducted the draw. On the other hand, with barely two months to the start of the African Championship of Nations in Cameroon, referees and assistant referees took part in a preparatory course from 4-8 February in Cairo. The African Championship of Nations (CHAN) is a football tournament that is played between the best national teams of Africa, exclusively featuring players who are active in the national championships and qualified to play in the ongoing season. Expatriate players, regardless of where they play, even in Africa, are not qualified to take part in the tournament. Twenty-two referees and 20 assistant referees gathered for the four-day intensive training programme to fine-tune for the sixth edition of the tournament designed exclusively for footballers playing in their domestic leagues. A blend of youth and experience, the programme focused primarily on Video Assistant Referee (VAR), which will be applied in the quarter-final stage of the competition. It will be the first time in the history of the tournament that VAR will be used following successful mock tests in 2018 in Morocco. Under the supervision of CAF Refereeing Director Eddy Maillet and a team of experienced instructors including Jerome Damon (South Africa), Doue Noumandiez Desire (Cote d'Ivoire), Lim Kee Chong (Mauritius), Essam Abdel-Fattah (Egypt), Mademba Mbacke and Mohamed Houssein Ali (Djibouti), the participants were taken through simulatory exercises to have a practical feel of the system which involves the use of technology. “The CHAN is a very important tournament and it is therefore important to have the referees in the best of conditions to give off their best. It is important that we have such a training course to give more experience to the referees regarding the usage of VAR,” Maillet told cafonline. “After the course and having observed the participants, we will draw up the final list of referees for the tournament.” There were also theoretical sessions. The participants took part in fitness exercises to check their physical readiness for the competition. Meanwhile, the draw for the final of the Champions League has been fixed for Monday, 17 February at Palais Polyvalent des Sports de Yaoundé in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde. The final will be just one game as opposed to the usual two-legged home and away affairs. *A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
