The premise of international football is the opportunity to play, and test yourself, against teams from other countries, so it would be a calamity if Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates were to be drawn against each other in the African Champions League … and spoil the concept of the continental club compettion
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The pairings for the Champions League quarterfinals will be determined on Thursday in Cairo and the per centage chance that the two South African clubs will be up against each other is a rather high 33.3 per cent per cent.
HERE COMES THE 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓. 🔥#TotalEnergiesCAFCL pic.twitter.com/jWv6UvPwbN
— TotalEnergies CAFCL & CAFCC 🏆 (@CAFCLCC) January 19, 2025
The draw pits the four winners of the groups during the league phase, which ended last month, up against the runners-up. Sundowns finished second in their group after previously dominating the league phase while Pirates upset the odds to top their group ahead of defending champions, and continental giants, Al Ahly.
Group D leaders. 🇹🇳
— TotalEnergies CAFCL & CAFCC 🏆 (@CAFCLCC) February 15, 2025
Who will ES Tunis face in the 2024/25 #TotalEnergiesCAFCL quarterfinals? pic.twitter.com/dUnJBpdG5S
Pirates and Al Ahly cannot be paired in the last eight, having just played each other in the group competition. Therefore, there are only three possible opponents for Pirates – Sundowns, Algeria’s Mouloudia Alger and Pyramids of Egypt.
Group C leaders. 🇿🇦
— TotalEnergies CAFCL & CAFCC 🏆 (@CAFCLCC) February 14, 2025
Who will Orlando Pirates face in the 2024/25 #TotalEnergiesCAFCL quarterfinals? pic.twitter.com/yWe7z7lDKJ
It is a pity there is no rule that keeps clubs from the same country playing each other, thereby keeping international competition exactly that … inter-national.
In the 2015 Champions League, we had the ridiculous situation of three Algerian clubs drawn in Group B with defending champions ES Setif plus USM Alger and newcomers MC El Eulma. What was the point of that? They might as well have foregone Champions League participation and just stuck to domestic competition.
The #TotalEnergiesCAFCC is bringing some interesting fixtures your way. 🔜
— TotalEnergies CAFCL & CAFCC 🏆 (@CAFCLCC) February 16, 2025
See the potential opponents and tell us which matchup are you excited about? 🤩 pic.twitter.com/pDNSFmldDG
This season we saw two Moroccan clubs – Raja Casablanca and Royal Armed Forces –in the same group. There should be rules to ensure this does not happen until completely unavoidable.
Uefa rules stated that, in the league phase of their Champions League, teams cannot face opponents from their own country, but the Confederation of African Football has no such provision. It should think about a change.
Competing in continental competition is all about the test of teams from other countries, not your own.