Is there conspiracy against southern African clubs?
Mqondisi Dube | Friday October 21, 2016 16:25
It’s almost 11 years ago since Jerry ‘Legs of Thunder’ Sikhosana burst through Asec Mimosa defence to plant a priceless second half goal, which gave South African giants, Orlando Pirates their first and only continental glory.
In 1995, Orlando Pirates defied the odds and held off the challenge of the then fancied Ivory Coast side.
It had ended 2-2 in Johannesburg, and with the return leg delicately poised, Sikhosana stabbed home a goal, which ensured Pirates were the first club from Southern Africa to win the CAF Champions League (then known as the Africa Cup of Champions Clubs).
Since the competition was established 52 years ago, only once has the trophy crossed to southern Africa and Sundowns are now 90 minutes away from shaking a seemingly brittle script.
The competition’s record shows that odds are heavily stacked against clubs from the southern tip of the continent.
Besides winning, only three other southern African clubs, Nkana Red Devils (1990), Sundowns (2001) and Dynamos (1998) have reached the final in the last 52 years.
In all the finals, except Nkana Red Devils against Algeria’s JS Kabylie, the southern African teams played the first leg at home and faced the daunting task of finishing away.
Recent statistics show that a team finishing at home holds the advantage. For instance, in the last five editions, only once has a team finishing away, won the trophy. It appears there is an unwritten rule that north or west African clubs always finish at home. But CAF will always maintain that a draw is conducted regarding which team starts at home.
“The order of legs (is) decided by a draw, held after the group stage draw,” read the competition rules.
However, it appears, the draw has followed a similar pattern except once in more than 52 years.
After Pirates were held to a 2-2 draw at home, the dream appeared up in smoke with Asec expected to finish them at home, but it was not to be after Sikhosana’s intervention.
In 1990, Zambia’s Nkana Red Devils were handed a rare, and to date, the only favourable draw for a southern African team, when they played JS Kabylie away in Algiers first. The north Africans won 1-0 and the Zambians edged the return leg with a similar scoreline. This forced the tie into penalties and the Algerians triumphed 5-3.
In 1998, Dynamos faced Asec Mimosa in Harare and held the Ivory Coast side to a draw before crumbling 4-2 away in the second leg, to continue a familiar pattern. Three years later, the same combination (of starting at home and finishing away) denied Sundowns the title after they held Egypt’s Al Ahly to a 1-1 draw in South Africa, but were blown away 3-0 in the return leg in Cairo. In 2013, Pirates reached the final against Al Ahly and held the north Africans at Orlando Stadium before running out of steam away from home, succumbing 2-0.
Clearly history favours teams finishing at home. Out of the 50 finals since 1964, 26 teams that finished at home have triumphed compared to 23 who won away from home.
In the last five editions, a team finishing away from home has won only once in 2012 when Egyptian record holding side, Al Ahly beat Esperance of Tunisia 2-1 away from home to claim the trophy 3-2 on aggregate.
Sundowns are now in line to upset the applecart and become only the second southern African team to win the CAF Champions League.