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The premise of international football is the opportunity to play

rugby18 February 2025 13:00| © Mzansi Football
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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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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