By Batsirai Sango.
The Caf champions league, the continent’s premiere club football competition has reached the knockout stage with the finest 8 teams on the continent confirmed.
As always the group stages was a fiesta with Africa’s football gladiators showing grit and heart as they jostled for a place in the last 8.
And it is only a couple of more days to the draw of the quarter final matchups with only stalwarts having made it.
In one of the recent articles, we romanticized Dr. Patrice Motsepe’s stewardship of African Football, and with the upcoming draw one has to laud the wisdom that informed the expansion of the tournament.
With more football on display and show it has automatically meant more competition, and competition is what African Football continues to witness with protagonists in the recent editions finding the going tough.
Tshwane giants and 2016 champions Mamelodi Sundowns, Cairo giants and the continent’s club of the century Al Ahly, Lubumbashi giants Tp Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Petro Luanda of Angola, Asec Mimosa of the Ivory Coast, as well as Young Africans and Simba SC both from the United Republic of Tanzania and Esperance of Tunisia are anxiously waiting for March the 12th when the draw would be conducted.
Surprisingly it’s the first time to only have two teams from the northern side of the motherland in the last 8, a testament to the growing competitiveness and shift in the balance of football power on the continent.
New protagonists have recently emerged with Tanzanian favorites Young Africans and Simba SC whose steady rise in Stock has come to the fore with both making it to the last 8, with Simba SC doing it at the expense of Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca.
Young Africans did it at the expense of Algerian colossals CR Belouzidad, an indication of how football is now spread throughout the continent, there is no more domination by a single region of the motherland.
The two also happen to be the only teams from the same country, a testament to the growing competitiveness of the league in Tanzania.
Congolese giants Tp Mazembe have somewhat comeback from a mini sabbatical over the last couple of seasons, with inaugural African Football league champions Mamelodi Sundowns making it to the last 8 for the sixth consecutive season.
Petro Luanda of Angola are slowly religiously making the knockout phase of the champions league their turf and will bring more intrigue to the quarter finals.
With the brief profiles of the teams one can attest, preview to what epic contests await in the last 8, as all teams qualified have huge, strong and loyal fan bases.
And also on the economic side of things it will also enhance the commercial prowess of the champions league, bearing in mind an audience of over 300million tuned in to watch the African Football league final between Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad Casablanca.
Such numbers are a reflection of the right direction African Football is being steered in by the Caf Supremo Dr. Motsepe.
The draw will be conducted in the Egyptian capital in Cairo which also happens to be the headquarters of , and African football pundits as well as fans would be glued to their television sets to learn how the last 8 would have matched up.
The first round of quarters will be taking place on the 29th of March, and the continent is patiently waiting for an entertainment galore, as football titans will go tore to tore for African Club Football supremacy.
