Times Of Swaziland: CAF BOOST FOR  ESWATINI’S  BEST CLUB!

CAF BOOST FOR  ESWATINI’S  BEST CLUB!
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Ntombikayise Gwebu and Nimrod Hlophe on 29/11/2023 13:21:00


MBABANE – There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Eswatini’s most successful club is set to benefit from the Confederation of
African Football’s move to launch the African Club Association (ACA) tomorrow.
The initiative aims to improve profits and conditions for the continent’s
elite sides. The conditions will be improved by making the clubs more
financially attractive to sponsors. This adds to improving the standards of
stadiums, facilities and infrastructure for teams. The Confederation of African
Football (CAF) will purportedly use its rankings system to decide on the top 80
teams that will be the inaugural associates for the ACA. If in any CAF member
association there is not a single football club within the top 80 based in the
CAF rankings, then, in the interest of inclusivity, the most successful football
club in such a member association shall be eligible to apply for ACA membership.
Eswatini currently has no team in the top 80 based on the rankings.
It is said that clubs outside the top 80 that wishes to be part of the
organisation will need to submit an application in writing to the ACA
administration. Its membership will not be considered until a general assembly
is convened in accordance with the admission procedure. Worth noting is that the
best club in Eswatini as per CAF rankings are police side Royal Leopard,
standing at position 92. Ingwe’mabalabala, as Leopard are widely known, are
the most successful club in the league over a 20-year period, as they boast
eight league titles. They are followed by Mbabane giants Swallows with six. The
latter are ranked 176 by CAF, as per the latest CAF rankings.
Women
It is understood women’s sides will not be excluded from this initiative,
either, with the top 15 African women’s football clubs, in line with the CAF
rankings, also set to be eligible to apply for ACA membership. None of the
country’s women team are in the top 15. CAF is set to announce a new
association for Africa’s top clubs tomorrow, according to Egyptian publication
Al Watan. The association will be launched in Cairo, Egypt. It is further
claimed the ACA will be headquartered in Kenya and will not change unless 70 per
cent of its members decide otherwise. The news outlet reported that it attained
documents that outline the purpose of establishing such an organisation and that
African football’s governing body stated it was essentially to make clubs on
the continent more self-sustaining and globally competitive. When asked if
Eswatini had a system to determine the most successful club in the country,
Eswatini Football Association (EFA) Marketing and Communications officer Muzi
‘Rhoo’ Radebe said, that was part of CAF’s duties. “That is CAF’s
business and they are the ones to announce the criteria,” Radebe said.