About three weeks before the start of the African Super League competition organized by CAF for the first time, crises surrounded the nascent competition, threatening the absence of some teams.
The new CAF tournament is scheduled to begin next October 20 with quarter-final matches, and will end next November 11 with the determination of the champion.
Crises at Sundowns
The Confederation of African Football's regulations regarding the tournament stipulate that none of the eight teams participating in the tournament must participate in any local confrontations during the competition period.
The South African "Farpost" network indicated that Sundowns' participation in the African Super League will turn the league competition in his country upside down due to CAF's request to freeze the team's participation for a period of 3 weeks.
The South African Football Association has not yet found a solution to reschedule Sundowns matches again, which forces it to extend the competition schedule for an additional 3 weeks after the competition ends next summer.
The report indicated that Sundowns may be forced to withdraw from the competition if the Football Association in their country does not succeed in finding a solution to this crisis, or for CAF to review its list and allow the team to participate locally.
Objection in Al-Ahly
Al-Ahly club, which is participating in the African Super League, expressed an official objection through its Swiss technical director, Marcel Kohler.
Kohler said in a press conference: “I will try to choose good words to express it, but the dates of the African Super League are not appropriate at all.”
Kohler added: “The CAF should have taken into account the circumstances of the international players who will participate with their country’s teams in the same period, and set appropriate rest periods between matches, taking into account the long distances and long hours of travel between African countries.”
Kohler concluded: “Because of this strange schedule, I will not be able to follow up on the condition of the international players in my team before facing Simba, and I will meet them in the match unexpectedly.”
Seductive response
For its part, CAF ignored the objections coming from the north and south of the African continent, and spoke about the advantages of the tournament.
CAF announced the financial prizes for the tournament, which are the highest in the history of African competitions, despite the fact that the tournament was limited to the participation of only 8 teams.
According to the CAF statement, the champion will receive $4 million, while the runner-up’s reward will be $3 million, while the losing semi-final teams will receive $1.7 million.
In the event of an early exit from the quarter-finals after only two round-robin matches, the participating team will receive one million dollars, which is the largest reward in the history of the continent that a team eliminated from the first round can receive.
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