CAF BLOW FOR TEAMS

MBABANE – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has tightened the grip on teams participating in the Champions League and Confederations Cup next year.

In fact, the continental football mother body has given clubs up to November to comply with the club licensing or they can kiss participating in next year’s tournaments goodbye. The resolution was taken during last week’s meeting in Cameroon where the country was represented by FA Technical Director Boy ‘Bizzah’ Mkhonta.

  The club licensing programme which was introduced three seasons ago requires that clubs should have qualified coaches and personnel, have fully operational junior squads and also ensure that they have audited financial records that are to be submitted to CAF.  The above requirements would then enable CAF to grant them a licence to operate which also gives them the right to participate in continental club tournaments. The clubs are also obliged to submit training facilities and match day stadiums which were inspected.

CAF inspected facilities last year for the country’s two representatives; Mbabane Swallows and Mbabane Highlanders, who competed in the Champions League and Confederations Cup respectively. There was no inspection for the other requirements, but after the November deadline there will be no more lenience.  Mkhonta, who has just returned from the meeting, said the FA CEO was the appropriate person to comment on the matter as it was purely administrative. However, he confirmed that teams that will be taking part in next year’s CAF tournaments will have up to November to meet the key requirements or they will not be allowed to participate.

“What I can say is that CAF has given teams up to November to comply. Beyond that there will be no more grace period. The CEO will be the one to elaborate on the specific requirements which clubs will be obliged to meet or they will be kicked out,” Mkhonta said.
FA CEO Frederick Mngomezulu confirmed that CAF wants teams to have two juniour teams from Under-10 to 14 and Under-15 to 20. “They should also have offices and qualified personel. The FA will write to the 12 Premier League teams plus the two that will be promoted in early May,” he said.

The last short message was sent to him at 7pm last night.
Royal Leopard are currently the only team that have booked a place in one of the CAF competitions after winning the SwaziBank Cup. They could, however, play in the CAF Champions League if they also win the MTN League where they are currently leading by four points with three games to go. Young Buffaloes could then take the ticket to play in the CAF Confederations Cup if the police side win the league too.

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