‘BIRDS’ CAF DEFEAT A BLOW

Sir,

They have broken many records locally and continentally. They became the first and only Eswatini football club to reach the group stages of the prestigious CAF inter-club competitions. One would have thought it was a fluke for them to advance to the group stages in the 2017 edition of the CAF Confederations Cup, but the record-breaking capital city giants repeated the same feat in the CAF Champions League the following year. They were undefeated in the MTN Premier League for more than 50 games, and they have won almost every domestic tournament, something which made them a dominant side in recent years.

And of course, you may be forgiven, dear reader, if by now you still can’t figure out that I am talking about Mbabane Swallows, a team which doesn’t need introduction in local football circles and beyond. This is the club that represented this beautiful Kingdom of Eswatini in the CAF Champions League recently. As we witnessed the out-of-sorts Swallows massacred by Tanzania’s Simba Stars in the two-legged CAF Champions League preliminary round encounter, one was tempted to pen this letter so as to make them realise how their poor showing impacted on the nation’s aspirations in the football world. Mind you, the locals were annihilated even on home soil, in front of hordes of their loyal supporters! This was surely not the Swallows we knew. What really went wrong?

Inasmuch as we have to admit that we couldn’t expect Swallows to win all the time, their imminent fall from grace leaves a lot to be desired. Against a not-so-convincing Tanzanian side, the Birds conceded eight goals whereas previously they were able to stand their ground and stop much feared sides like Congolese AC Leopards where they overturned a three-goal deficit to claim victory. This is the Swallows side that made their presence felt in such continental tournaments, and even if they bowed out, they would do so with dignity. I am not blaming Swallows per se but I am at a loss for words on how their performance could drastically drop. Could this be the signs of faltering?

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