Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane has questioned the implementation of the African Super League, insisting a regional format could give Mamelodi Sundowns a huge advantage.
CAF recently invited 40 clubs to discuss the CAF Super League with Patrice Motsepe and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, with Kaizer Chiefs being the only South African club that could make the meeting.
The African Super League (ASL) is scheduled to kick off in September 2023 and is expected to include 24 African football clubs, who all need to have academies and women’s teams.
The exact details about the format are still sketchy at this stage and Mosimane has insisted he has not heard anything how it will supposed to work – questioning the addition of the ASL to an already packed football calendar for the clubs.
“You ask yourself what’s going to happen with the with the CAF Super League. I mean, I’m so much interested, I would love to know, I need somebody to explain to me the Super League, maybe you guys know and send me something what the Super League is about,” he told journalists of the South African Football Journalist Association.
“Because I think we have to play this thing. But I don’t know when and how you’re going to play it. I don’t know the format. If you say to me, put the Super League this year, this season, where you want to put it?
“With a FIFA Arab Cup, one month. CAF Champions League, one month. World Cup, 15 days, half a month and the league. Where are you going to put it? So it’s interesting.
“I understand there is a lot of financial spin offs, and I think it’s always also good to see the big teams playing against each other, but what is the format? What’s going to happen to the traveling?
“Is South African teams, or the teams in the Sadc going to be having trouble to travel because the teams are in North Africa. Raja is here, Wydad is here, Al Ahly is here, Zamalek is here, Esperance is here, Sfaxien is here. Setif is back now, you have JS Kabele. The teams are in North Africa.
“I mean those eight teams in those eight eight countries they should be there. And if it’s a 16 team [competition], half the teams is in North Africa and and how they’re gonna travel now, there will be on the flight.
“We’re fortunate at Al Ahly, we travel with our own aircraft. At Sundowns I travel with everybody. So it’s tough. It’s not going to be easy for them also.
“How is going to be the format? And you if you saying It’s regional, I don’t know, then I think the scales are different, then Sundowns has an advantage because they are the powerhouses in Sadc.
“So it’s nice, let them come with the big boys here. Let’s rub shoulders with them, put them in a group with us and Zamalek and Wydad and Esperance, let’s see – then that’s the Super League.”
Mosimane also explained why grouping the teams per region would not be a good idea and place a massive advantage for Mamelodi Sundowns.
“But if they’re going with the idea, they are going to represent Sadc, it’s like when you go to the [Club] World Cup,” he added.
“The team from Australia will make the [Club] World Cup 100% because from that continent, they will make the cup. It’s Europe, Africa and Asia and CONMEBOL that has tough leagues.
“There’s a team in New Zealand that this boy was, I had to play at Mamelodi Sundowns from Australia, the Argentinian.
“I think he’s played maybe in eight [Club] World Cup tournaments because they’re the only team in Australia, they play Fiji and what, what. There’s no football there.
“So I don’t know how the Super League is going to happen.”
Story by David Kappel (@kappilinho).
