AFCON 2023: SIHLANGU FACE LEOPARD STARS BLOW

MBABANE – MTN Premier League defending champions Royal Leopard players may not form part of the senior national team, Sihlangu Semnikati to play Somalia late next month.

Leopard had eight stars in the national team coached by former Young Buffaloes head coach Dominic Kunene last year, whereby they played the COSAFA Senior Challenge and completed their Africa Cup of Nations 2021 qualifiers, that included a group match with eventual champions Senegal. The squad was dominated by Leopard and Young Buffaloes, then a few others from Mbabane Highlanders and Mbabane Swallows.

Outcry

There had been an outcry about the dominance of the security forces teams in the national team from the public before, especially when Kunene called up many of his former team’s players. Kunene, who is expected to get an extension atleast for the TOTALEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 Qualifiers which pitted Eswatini against fellow lowly-ranked Somalia in the FIFA World Rankings, may have to do without the police side’s players, who would certainly have included on form midfielder Junior Magagula this time as he never got the call-up last season, despite being the best player for Leopard all season.

The eight players who had been called up before are Mzwandile Mabelesa, Mlamuli Msibi, Ncamiso ‘Mbhonyo’ Dlamini, Sikhumbuzo Magagula, Sifiso Matse, Sidumo Dlamini, Machawe Dlamini and Phephisani Msibi. This is more so because Leopard will be away in Libya to play their TOTALEnergies CAF Confederation Cup Group B match against Il-Ittihad at the Benina Martyrs Stadium in Benghazi on March 20. A day later, it is FIFA international break until March 29, 2022 which is where the national team comes in. Eswatini is part of the AFCON 2023 Qualifiers and the preliminary round games are scheduled for this international break as the world football mother body’s calendar.

The AFCON Qualifiers are two-legged which means home and away fixtures before the winner is determined on aggregate score. Sihlangu starts away in Somalia on March 21 before the return leg, hopefully at Mavuso Sports Centre if CAF will allow it as the venue has been banned further from staging international matches. This immediately affects Leopard who now have to host their first home match against neighbours, South Africa’s Orlando Pirates next Sunday. The return leg will be on March 29, the last day of the second FIFA international break this year. The national team is yet to be selected but Leopard players could be no feature at all as they will be in Algeria. It is only in the second leg that the national team can consider the police ensemble’s players for the qualifiers. Leopard will only play their next CAF Confed Cup match after March 20 on April 3 against Al-Ittihad. This will be the final group match.

Coaches

“The dates don’t clash because Leopard’s game is outside of the FIFA break, which starts on March 21. We also don’t have a national team in place yet so what would we be saying to other players? The coaches are yet to select the national team,” EFA Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe responded when first asked about this. However, as he was pressed with questions on the distance between Algeria and Somalia and the fact that chances of the EFA flying players immediately from Algeria to Somalia for them to even rest for satisfactory hours before the national team match were almost zero, he acknowledged the technicalities. “Those are issues of travel and time, which is technical,” he said. Radebe insisted that these were all CAF tournaments and currently, the dates were just as they were, but national team players were yet to be selected and called up. This is expected to be atleast in the second week of March at the latest. Meanwhile, Leopard PRO Frank Hurube said they were aware Sihlangu was having matches too, but asked not comment about the availability of their players.

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