The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has finally decided what to do with the semi-finals and final of its most prestigious club competition, the Champions League. In a meeting held in Cairo concerning the semi-finals and the final of the Champions League, CAF's inter-clubs committee on Monday recommended that since Cameroon had withdrawn from being host of the final stages, the semi-finals are to return back to the traditional home and away matches. If the two teams reaching the final are from the same country, this country will host the final. But if the two finalists represent two countries, then the final match -- for the first time, the final will be played as a single match -- is to be staged in a neutral country. The four semi-finalists include Ahly and Zamalek of Egypt and Raja Casablanca and Wydad of Morocco. CAF had previously announced that the semi-finals, which will see Zamalek face Raja and Ahly come up against Wydad, will be one game apiece. Surprisingly, there has been no news on the future of Africa's second-tier football club tournament, the Confederations Cup in which only one Egyptian club, Pyramids, is represented together with Horaya of Kenya and two Moroccan teams, RS Berkane and Hassania Agadir. Morocco was named host of the final four. The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) issued a statement hours after the conclusion of the Cairo meeting in which it said that the EFA calls on CAF to deal with the Confederation Cup as the Champions League. “The EFA has officially addressed CAF in a letter demanding equal treatment for the Confederations Cup competition as the Champions League, in both the semi-finals and the final match,” said Osama Ismail, EFA media director. “In the letter, the EFA explained that if CAF insists that the Confederation semi-final match is to be held as a one match event, then it should be held in a neutral ground for fairness between the two teams,” he added. Despite traditional and social media taking the news as a final decision, it is in fact not. So far, it is just a recommendation by the inter-clubs committee and has been referred to the emergency committee and then the executive board for approval before it goes into action. Following the suspension of football in the continent because of the coronavirus, the semi-finals, which were scheduled to be held in May, were postponed until further notice. Then on 30 June, the executive committee decided that the Total CAF Champions League and the Total Confederation Cup will resume in September with a final-four format and that the semi-final matches would be played in a single match. Cameroon was selected as host of the mini-tournament in which the winners of the two semi-final matches would remain in the country for the final match.
Pyramids On the other hand, teams of the Egyptian football league are continuing to train in preparation for the resumption of the second round of the national league, scheduled to kick-off on 6 August. The league schedule is yet to be announced. The teams have been training while following all the health and safety precautions required by the Ministry of Health following the pandemic. Team doctors are keen to check the players with regular PCR tests. With almost two weeks to go before the resumption of the competition, some teams have already played some friendly matches: Zamalek and Smouha on Sunday while the White Knights were scheduled to meet Talaea Al-Gish on Wednesday. On Thursday 23 July, Zamalek will take on Pyramids and Wadi Degla on 26 July. Wadi Degla is currently looking for an opponent to play against on 3 August. Defending champion Ahly are also scheduled to play against Smouha on 24 July and Gouna on 28 July. Ahly lead the standings table of the 61st season of the major 18-team Egyptian football competition, leading with 49 points after the first round, followed by the Arab Contractors in second place with 33 points and Pyramids in third place with 32 points. Zamalek come in fourth with 31 points and Ittihad of Alexandria fifth with 27 points. Enppi and Talaea Al-Gish are scheduled to play their second friendly match on 23 July after playing their first on Sunday. Enppi will then clash against Military Production on Friday 24 July, Masr on 26 July and Maqassa on 2 August. They are also negotiating for two more matches to be held on 30 and 31 July. Ismaili is to play three friendlies next week against Aswan, Masr and Maqassa while Masri will take on four teams in a row: Talaea Al-Gish, Tanta, Smouha and Pyramids. Meanwhile, French football magazine France Football announced this week that the prestigious Ballon d'Or for the world's best player will not be awarded in 2020 because of a “lack of sufficient fair conditions” created by the coronavirus pandemic. The prize has been awarded by France Football every year since 1956. The Ballon d'Or now follows both FIFA and CAF who both announced in March and June that they have cancelled their awards for the same reasons. Barcelona's Lionel Messi won the men's prize last year, with USA forward Megan Rapinoe claiming the women's trophy. France Football said awarding a prize in a “crippled” year would “not be worthy” of their history. “We did not want to put an indelible asterisk on the prize list like ‘trophy won in exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19 health crisis',” it added. “Protecting the credibility and legitimacy of such an award also means ensuring its flawlessness over time.” England's Stanley Matthews was the first winner of the award when it was the European Footballer of the Year. It was only awarded to European players until 1995, when it expanded to become open for any player at a European club. From 2007 it opened up to the rest of the world. The 30-player list of nominees is compiled by the editorial staff of the French magazine, with the winner voted for by journalists from around the world, with one representative per nation. Argentina international Messi won the prize for a record sixth time last year. In March, FIFA decided to cancel The Best awards this year. The ceremony was due to take place in Milan in September, but that will no longer happen because of the coronavirus pandemic, which meant that the likes of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo won't be up for the coveted Best Men's Player award, which will be left vacant. On 30 June, CAF had also announced the cancellation of the 2020 edition and that major partners for the event, Pickalbatros Group, has re-affirmed their contractual commitment towards the next two editions. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
