Sports News of Saturday, 18 March 2017

Source: garibaraubilgameafrique

Feature: 64 clubs compete in CAF competitions this weekend but Ghana has no rep

No Ghanaian club in any CAF competitionNo Ghanaian club in any CAF competition

When I realized that there are sixty-four (64) clubs that will be competing in both the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup this weekend I collapsed onto my chair and and my eyes tore up because I did not see any side from Ghana in the fixture list when clubs like Barrack Young Controllers from Liberia, Kadiogo from Burkina, Mounana of Gabon,AS FAN from Niger, Atlabara from South Sudan are all still among the top sides playing in the CAF competitions this year.

I could not believe it as I quickly check to see if FIFA has suspended Ghana that would automatically affect clubs as in the case of Mali – but that was not the situation with Ghana. Simply the Ghanaian clubs were just not good to form part of the top 64 sides to advance from the preliminary round of both CAF competitions. What a reverse, Ghana football!

Ghanaian champions Wa All Stars were easily bundled out of the CAF champions league preliminary round by Libyan team Al-Ahli Tripoli who effortlessly defeated All Stars 5-1 on summation, 3-1 in Tamale for the first leg and 2-0 in Tunis in the second leg. The Libyan team never broke a sweat. It was an easy game.

In the Confederation Cup, Bechem United, to be fair, fared much better than All Stars. The Brong Ahafo side recorded a 2-1 home win over Algeria’s MC Alger but were battered 4-1 in the return leg in Alger to go out on a 5-3 aggregate defeat.

Overall, it is disappointing that when 64 clubs are still doing battle at the very highest levels of African club football this weekend, no Ghanaian side is participating.