With the busy football Calendar of 2019, CAF is doing her best to keep a level head. The release of the African Nation’s Championship (CHAN) Qualifiers pairing is a good thing.Morocco set the bar high in the last tournament in 2017. A summary of the round 1 fixtures show’s that there would be some interesting games and fans should expect fire works with these fixtures;
Round 1
M.1: Algeria vs Morocco
M.1: Morocco vs Algeria
M.1: Tunisia vs Libya
M.2: Libya vs Tunisia
Round 1
M.1: Guinea Bissau vs Mali
M.2:Mali vs Guinea Bissau
M.3:Cape Verd vs Mauritania
M.4: Mauritania vs Cape Verd
M.5: Liberia vs Senegal
M.6: Senegal vs Liberia
Round 1
M.1: Benin vs Togo
M.2: Togo vs Benin
Round 1
M.1: Tanzania Sudan
M.2:Sudan Tanzania
M.3: Kenya vs Burundi
M.4: Burundi vs Kenya
M.5: South Sudan vs Uganda
M.6: Uganda vs South Sudan
M.7: Somalia vs Rwanda
M.8:Rwanda vs Somalia
Round 1
M.1:Botswana vs Seychelles
M. 2: Seychelles vs Botswana
M.3: Eswatini vs Malawi
M.4:Malawi vs Eswatini
Cameroon had a poor outing in Morocco, but are on course to getting yet another chance to make amends in Ethiopia 2020. Cameroon is in the Central zone of qualifiers that would be expected to present 3 worthy teams to the tournament proper. The Intermediate Lions would be on the travels with their first game against Sao Tome And Principe, in the second round of the qualifiers. A win of any sort would see them go through, since they were spared from the first round of qualifications. The reminder of the fixtures in this zone consist;
Round 1
M.1: CAR vs Chad
M.2: Chad vs CAR
Second Round
Round. 2: winner of the game pitting CAR vs Chad to play D.R Congo.
Sao Tome And Principe vs Cameroon.
M.7:Guinea Eq. vs Congo
M.8: Congo vs Guinea. Eq.
The date of the games are still to be made public by CAF.
The whole idea creating this tournament in the first place, is a good one. It helps local players to compete, and gives them a chance to defend the national colours in the AFCON proper, or even get bigger clubs
El Kaabi (highest goal scorer of Morocco with 9 goals), was taken to the World cup while others were quickly snapped abroad courtesy the tournament ; Raphael Messi Bouli moving to China from Apejes is another example.
Giovanni Wanneh.
