By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The country’s football governing body, Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) is on the verge of submitting slots for the season ahead of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup.
Champions of Sierra Leone, Bo Rangers FC will be representing Sierra Leone in the CAF Champions league competition, the club’s third successive season in the continent’s first tier CAF interclub competition.
The Southern Province based club is the second provincial team outside Freetown to win the country’s top flight league after Eastern Province based club Diamond Stars in 2012 and the first ever Provincial team to be crowned champions for a third consecutive season in Sierra Leone’s top flight club football competition.
However, East End Lions ‘The Killers’ will also play in the continent’s second tier interclub competition CAF Confederations Cup after the club’s qualification in the country’s FA Cup final alongside Bo Rangers who both clubs await the announcement of a possible replay date of the final after a disciplinary committee decision.
Since 2015 after the club last appeared during the Preliminary round of the CAF Champions League East End Lions, The Killers are hoping to return back to the continent’s Interclub competition and this time in the second tier of the continent interclub competition.
According to the schedule released by CAF, the 2024/25 Interclub season will kick-off with the Preliminary Round expected between 16th-18th August 2024, while the draw for the Preliminary Round has been scheduled for 4th July, 2024.
CAF Interclub 2024/25 Key Information:
The Group Stages are scheduled between October – December 2024, while the Knockout Phase and Final of both competitions will be between March–May 2025.
As was already the case in 2023/24 CAF confirmed that teams do not drop from the CAFCL into the CAF Confederations Cup anymore.
“The addition of the second preliminary round of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup remains cancelled,” CAF stated,
“Consequently, teams eliminated in the second round of the CAF Champions League will no longer transition into the CAF Confederation Cup.
“Clubs that advance from the second preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup will proceed directly to the group stage of the competition.”
CAF also confirmed the 12 highest ranked Member Associations according to the CAF rankings who will be eligible to enter two Clubs in both the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League as well as the CAF Confederation Cup.
The 12 highest ranked national associations are as follows: Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, RD Congo, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Tanzania.
CAF also kicked-off the registration period for Member Associations to register their qualified Clubs on the CAF Competitions Management System (CMS).
