Football, flares and fanatics: a fitting send off for the Confederation Cup
As Zamelek's victory against RS Berkane descended into bedlam, the fate of the Confederation Cup hangs in the balance
The CAF Confederation Cup final was chaotic to say the least.
Following on from the mess that was the semi finals between RS Berkane and USM Alger which nearly caused an international incident, the finals looked set to have all the drama on the pitch.
After the last few years of some relatively inexperienced sub-Saharan clubs like Orlando Pirates and Young Africans competing in the final of the continent’s second competition (sitting below the Champions League), the 2024 edition was a return for the giants of north African. Berkane were entering their fourth final in six years and faced off against Zamelek, the second most successful club in Africa who were returning to the top of African football after a few years in the continental wilderness.
With Berkane winning the first leg 2-1, both sides headed to Cairo with everything to play for, particularly with the away goals still at play, Zamelek just needed a 1-0 win to earn a seventh continental title.
Now if you’ve never seen a fully packed Cairo International Stadium, you’ve not experienced a proper atmosphere.
With restrictions on crowds in Egyptian football because of the Egyptian government’s enmity towards football fans and Zamelek’s recent travails on the continent, it has been a long time since we’ve been treated to what the ultras of the White Knights can do. In fact the last time that Zamalek was able to have a full stadium was the last time they played in the Confederation Cup final in 2019, against Berkane!
Roared on by 60,000 plus fans, Zamelek put on a continental masterclass. Ahmed Hamdi volleyed in a Zizo pull-back in the 23rd minute before sitting back and comfortably defending that lead. Despite conceding 16 shots, Mohamed Awad didn’t have to make a single save as Zamelek saw out the result to claim their second Confederation Cup title.
That’s where things got messy.
Fans invaded the pitch to join the players who themselves rushed to the southern stand to celebrate, flairs held aloft. With more stringent security elsewhere on the pitch, fans used the only section with limited security, the block of seats where Zamelek players’ families were sitting, sending both the players and their families into chaos.
Such was the chaos that the official holding the Confederation Cup trophy was accidentally shoved out the way while on camera by security ushering fans off the pitch. And while CAF President Patrice Motsepe was struggling to get down to the pitch to present the trophy, some Zamelek officials got their hands on the trophy to start the celebrations before the trophy was even lifted by the team.
Finally after an hour of confusion, the team was able to be presented the trophy and celebrate properly on the pitch. But with the security now blocking the players’ tunnel to stop fans on the pitch leaving that way, some players were stuck on the pitch and nearly came to blows with security as they tried to leave the field.
It was an ending that perhaps distilled the essence of the Confederation Cup into a single match. Chaos, confusion and a little bit of footballing magic sprinkled in.
Being the second continental cup competition and one that domestic cup winners qualify for means that there is a wackiness present that we don’t really experience (as much) in the Champions League.
There are teams entering the competition that are sometimes no more than village teams who have overachieved. Last season Marumo Gallants from South Africa managed to reach the semi finals of the competition while they were relegated from the PSL.
During their campaign they were scammed by a travel agent, at one point had half a dozen players miss a match in Libya because they accidentally left the gate in transit in Istanbul and had a hotel in Tripoli hold their physio and media officer hostage for unpaid bills, eventually needing the South African government to step in to release them.
The year before, Binga FC, a team of amateurs from Mali, travelled thousands of kilometres to Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast on a variety of vehicles including pick up trucks before raising funds to make the 10,000 KM round trip to Lusaka where they were eventually knocked out by Zambian champions Zanaco.
It’s a brilliant competition that brings out the very best (and worst) in African football, but sadly this fiasco in Cairo may be the last as the competition’s very existence has come under threat by the ever-looming African Football League.
Gianni Infantino’s pet competition has become the latest albatross around CAF’s neck. The tournament that was first announced by Infantino and not Mostsepe and isn’t actually run by CAF has made many promises that have been broken. It was meant to have a $100 million prize pool (turned out to be less than the Champions League’s), it was meant to bring the best 20 teams (only eight participated last season) and was not meant to impact the Champions League or Confederation Cup.
But the latest noises from CAF seem to be pointing to the competition replacing the Champions League as the official top table competition of Africa and sending the Confederation Cup to an untimely grave.
How the system of qualification would work, we have no idea as things stand. Currently the AFL is an invitation-only competition (something that in of itself undermines African football) and if it expands to 24 teams as has been widely reported, how would teams then qualify for the Champions League? Would teams be invited to play in the AFL but also be able to qualify for the Champions League as has been this season? Or would those invited to play in the AFL be unable to compete for the Champions League?
So many unanswered questions still remain and amazingly, with just a few months until the Confederation Cup and Champions League qualifiers are set to start, we have no idea what is going to happen.
It’s not the only comical planning error facing CAF as I have widely written about, we still don’t know when the next AFCON is happening or if the next WAFCON will ever happen but the uncertainty is hurting everyone at a club level looking to compete in next year’s competition.
But perhaps for one last night, we were able to see the Confederation Cup refuse to go quietly into the night.
I would have been raging as a player if I had to wait that long to lift the trophy