Africa-Press – Eswatini. IT’S good news for local football followers as the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) has successfully secured a temporary approval from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to host the TotalEnergies CAF Inter-Club matches at the Somhlolo National Stadium, starting next month.
This means that the country’s CAF envoys Royal Leopard and Mbabane Highlanders will now be able to host their forthcoming matches at the country’s only MECCA.
Leopard will be competing in the CAF Champions League against CFFA from Madagascar while Highlanders have a date with DStv Premiership outfit Royal AM.
The first leg of the first preliminary round batch of matches is scheduled for the weekend of September 9-11 with the second leg games a week later, between September 16 and 18.
Leopard will start away in Antananarivo, Madagascar while Highlanders will host the KwaZulu-Natal based outfit. The latest developments were confirmed by EFA’s Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe.
“EFA would like to greatly appreciate CAF on the approval of their request and in the same vein express a note of gratitude to the ministry of sports, culture and youth affairs for the collaboration as some of the urgent matters to allow the matches were addressed.
The hosting of the home matches will both be a benefit to the local participating clubs and fans, who have dearly missed watching their beloved clubs on home soil. This will also be an economic boosting opportunity for the participants and other stakeholders associated with the matches,” Radebe stated.
This comes at a time when there has been a national outcry about the unavailability of stadiums to host international matches, forcing the EFA to use Mbombela Stadium, Orlando Stadium and FNB Stadium in South Africa as alternative home venues.
Leopard Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frank Hurube said they were happy with the move.
“We are excited with the move as it will give us home ground advantage and further reduce costs for us. We would like to thank the EFA and parliamentarians for their intervention in the matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, Highlanders boss Chief Ally Kgomongwe said they were excited with the move.
“We are delighted with the news since we will now have home ground advantage and we will do our best to use it profitably in order to make our supporters happy,” he said.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
