Africa-Press – Uganda. The Confederation of African Football, Caf, has confirmed that the inaugural Caf women’s Champions League will be held between October and December this year. The body confirmed the development while officially opening the bidding process for the country that will host the tournament.
The two-stage competition will see the champions of the respective leagues compete at the seven Caf regions with the top teams advancing to join the hosts in the eight-team final.
The countries bidding to host the games need to have two standard stadiums, at least four training facilities, accommodation plans for the eight teams, and an official guarantee from their government.
Exposure
Coach Ayub Khalifan who has won three local league titles with Kawempe Muslim sees an exciting opportunity for Ugandan players to gain the much-needed exposure at the continental level.
“We have been playing and ending locally but this is a good chance for our players to be exposed out there. They have been getting that opportunity while on the national team but this will now mean all players from the best clubs will be exposed.” Khalifan said.
Reduced costs
The coach approves the two-stage format that Caf is introducing arguing that it will help to cut down costs involved in travelling since all the games will be played in one country. He also believes the competition will improve the overall structures of clubs because they will be forced to adjust to international standards.
“For a club to play at the continental level then it means that you have to improve your structures and definitely finances. They [Caf] have helped the clubs by organizing it in a one-way tournament-format because it would have been very costly to travel to countries for one-offs considering that the game has just started growing,” He added.
Uganda will be represented by the champions of this season’s Fufa Women’s Super League that replaced the Elite league. The League to be played in a bio-bubble at the Fufa Technical Centre will kick-off on April 11.
