CONFIRMED: ‘BUFFS’ FOR CAF

MBABANE – After speculation on who will represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup, the cat is finally out of the bag.

While some believe that MoMo Cup champions Nsingizini Hotspurs deserve to represent the country in the Confederation of African Football’s second tier tournament, it has been revealed that the MTN Premier League runners-up will be the country’s envoys. In the absence of a major knockout tournament, the runners-up get the slot, with Mbabane Highlanders being the last representative. The latter were eliminated by South Africa’s Royal AM in the first hurdle.

runners-up

The league runners-up are Young Buffaloes after finishing second with 58 points. They were three points behind the champions Green Mamba. The league winners will be representing the country in the top-tier tournament styled CAF Champions League. Before the confusion on who will represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup, the EswatiniBank Cup champions used to be the one representing the country. Due to COVID-19, all cup tournaments including the EswatiniBank, Ingwenyama Cup and Eswatini Telecom Charity Cup had to be put on pause since 2019. Since then, the league champions and runners up were the ones representing the country in CAF. The question now was, since there was a cup competition by the name of Momo Cup, will it be considered as a ticket to represent the country in the CAF Confederation? The answer is no. This was according to Eswatini Football Association (EFA) CEO Frederick Mngomezulu.

champions

“Well since the COVID-19 break-out, the norm is that we have been sending out the league runners-up in the CAF Confederation Cup, and it has not changed even this season; the second team to finish after the champions will represent the country,” said Mngomezulu. Asked why they were not considering the Momo Cup Champions, Nsingizini Hotspurs, he said: “For a cup competition to be fully fledged a national cup competition, it should be played for by all the teams, even  regional teams. The MoMo Cup was played by seven teams,” responded the CEO. Meanwhile, Buffaloes CEO Sandile Gwebu said they were targeting to reach the group stages. “We were playing to at least qualify for a  CAf competition. We have achieved that and our target is to compete and represent the country well. We want to reach the group stages,” he said.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: