Africa-Press – Eswatini. Despite increased competitions this season and post-COVID-19, the country’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) clubs’ participation for the 2024/25 season remains unchanged. Besides the league and the MoMo Cup, there has been also the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Trade Fair and the rebirth of the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF) Ingwenyama Cup.
The official guide for selecting the country’s CAF envoys before COVID-19 was the league and the EswatiniBank Cup. However, after the pandemic in 2019/20, EswatiniBank Cup temporally lost the keys to the CAF Confederation Cup, following its hiatus. Those chapters were closed, leaving the league to produce the representative, as well as that of the Champions League.
However, the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Chairperson Mark Carmichael has confirmed the unchanged status quo of the continental inter-club qualification criterion. Carmichael affirmed this yesterday, following the PLE Executive meeting held on Thursday to wind up 2023. “At this stage, we’re still going with number one and two, unless the stakeholders (EFA and PLE) come together and come up with a different format for selecting CAF envoys. At that stage, an announcement may be made,” Carmichael said. When asked if the SMVAF Ingwenyama Cup could be temporarily used for the TotalEnergies CAF Confederations Cup this season, he said the chances were very slim.
Rules
The Denver Sundowns boss said the Ingwenyama Cup endorsement prior to the competition commenced in the rules to state that the winner would represent the country continentally. “You can’t hijack it midway. However, we are in the last edition of our second phase of sponsorship. We’re hoping and praying that we can get an extension and that could open possibilities under the review of the tournament,” he further said. Furthermore, the Chairman said it would still require them to re-engage affected stakeholders. He said some were still recovering from COVID-19, understandable the EswatiniBank who must find the same terms immediately after they kicked back to life.
Worth noting is that even the Ingwenyama Cup 2023/24 Rules and Regulations do not mention anything pertaining to CAF participation. Article 2(1) states the winner will be conferred the champions and shall be presented with a trophy. Meanwhile, PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Mankhanya said a proposal, which he did not unpack will be made to the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) by the PLE Executive (ExCo). “The PLE ExCo will make a decision on this matter, which will be submitted as a proposal to EFA,” Makhanya said briefly.
Notably, during the instance where the league is producing both CAF envoys, Royal Leopard, Mbabane Highlanders and Young Buffaloes have benefited through the league runners-up slot. Today, the Ingwenyama Cup is wrapping up the regional phase with a finals showdown between Maphalaleni’s Young Lovers and Malahleni United from Malindza at Mkhuzweni Technical Centre. The main tournament, national phase, is set to kick-off in the first week of the 2024.
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