With the Sierra Leone Football Association yet to confirm which of the two out of the three clubs, including Bo Rangers, Kamboi Eagles and E.E. Lions, would represent the country in the Champions League and Confederation Cup, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have released the final schedule for all continental competitions set to take place during the 2020/2021 season.
Bo Rangers, Kamboi Eagles and E.E. Lions were given three days deadline to negotiate, but Bo Rangers FC issued out a press release claiming that they are leading the table and that they should be declared champions or else they will not represent the country based on financial advantage. East End Lions have also stated that they are more than willing to represent the country if the FA requested them to do so.
The SLFA’s Director of Competitions, Sorie Ibrahim Sesay, has told Night Watch Sports that they have not yet decided who will be representing Sierra Leone in the continental club competitions. “When we make a decision on who will represent Sierra Leone in the CAF Champions League and Intercontinental Cup we will inform you. For now we’ve not yet decided,” the SLFA’s Director of Competitions said.
However, on Tuesday September 1st 2020, CAF released the final calendar for 2020/2021 season.
The current season of CAF Inter-clubs Competitions is yet to end as the semi-finals and finals of the Champions League and Confederation Cup are still set to take place at the end of September.
Africa’s football governing body have decided to release the new calendar for the upcoming season and explained to Member Associations (MAs) which of their teams will be allowed to participate in the upcoming editions.
CAF revealed their new guidelines in a statement on their official website, which are as follows:
- MAs that completed the 2019/20 season, the engaged teams shall be the teams qualified from their national competitions for 2019/20.
- MAs that did not complete the 2019/20 season but set a criteria to classify the teams or homologate the standings in the national competitions for 2019/20, the engaged teams shall be the teams qualified from the national competitions 2019/20.
- MAs that could not complete the 2019/20 season and considered the season canceled, the engaged teams will be the same representatives for the 2019/20 Inter-clubs season taking into consideration the quota of each Association according to their ranking.
- MAs yet to complete their season or unable to finish before the engagement deadline, they will be requested to choose one of the above-mentioned criteria to determine their representative (s) subject to the approval of CAF.
Along with their statement, CAF unveiled the ranking of the top Member Associations, based on how their representatives performed in club competitions over the past five years.
Morocco tops the ranking with 180 points followed by Egypt (147) and Tunisia (140). The remainders of the 12-country list include DR Congo, Algeria, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Guinea, Angola, Sudan and Libya respectively.
Finally, they will open registrations for any of these tournaments on October 21st through November 19th 2020.