Gor Mahia's Austin Odhiambo (right) tussle with Al Ahly's Attia Marawan during their Caf Champions League first leg of the second preliminary round clash at Nyayo National Stadium on September 15, 2024.
The two Kenyan clubs in this season’s African club competitions ended their runs, as has been the case in recent years, at the very beginning.
Record Kenyan champions Gor Mahia were crushed 6-0 on aggregate by Egyptian giants Ah Ahly in the CAF Champions League second preliminary round.
Kenya Police, on the other hand, were eliminated 3-1 on aggregate by another Egyptian colossus Zamalek in the second preliminary round of the Confederation Cup.
How both Kenyan clubs got drawn against Egyptian opponents is a matter of conjecture. What is not in doubt is the difference in class between the two sets of clubs. None other than the Gor Mahia coach, widely travelled Brazilian Leonardo Neiva, confirmed this – publicly conceding “Al Ahly are at another level. There is a huge gap between us and them”.
This is not notwithstanding Kenyan fans’ penchant for overestimating their teams’ football capabilities.
However, after another painful and early elimination in Africa at the hands of Nile valley foes some Kenyan fans have been wondering why clubs from this part of the world seemingly, regularly get drawn against the big boys of Egypt.
I took the trouble of going through all the CAF Champions League competitions from the time a Kenyan club, AFC Leopards (formerly Abaluhya), first participated in 1968 when the tournament was known as the African Cup of Champions Club to the 2024/2025 edition.
Indeed, Kenya clubs have regularly drawn Egyptian ones and, regularly, gotten eliminated.
Incidentally, AFC Leopards registered the best ever performance by a Kenyan team in the Champions League, reaching the semi-final in 1968 where they lost 4-2 on aggregate to Togo’s Etoile Filante.
But back to the Egyptian factor.
From the 52 editions that Kenyan clubs have participated in, they have been drawn against Egyptian clubs 17 times, in the preliminary, first or second rounds.
Kenyan clubs have lost (on aggregate) all these encounters. They heaviest include Zamalek crushing Nzoia 7-1 on aggregate in a first round in 2003, Al Ahly’s recent demolition of Gor Mahia, Zamalek’s 5-0 annihilation of Ulinzi Stars in a 2011 preliminary round, Al Ahly’s 5-0 smash job on Tusker in a 2006 first round, and Al Ahly’s 7-2 slaughter of AFC Leopards in a 1987 second round.
There have also been close encounters, most notably Gor going down 2-3 to Zamalek in a 1994 second round and 1-0 in a 1984 second round.
Ethiopian and Sudan teams come second in the frequency of encounters with their Kenyan counterparts, at eight apiece by my count.
I have never heard Kenyans complain about these frequent encounters with our neighbours, particularly against Ethiopian clubs. The reason is obvious.
In all these Kenyan-Ethiopian meetings, only once, has a Kenyan club lost -- in the 1986 tourney first round where Breweries (now Tusker) were beaten 2-1 on aggregate by Brewery Jimma.
Interestingly, there are some countries whose clubs have never been drawn against Kenyan ones in the history of the African Champions League. I at least noted two – South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire.
I would love to get an explanation from the mandarins who run CAF on how this occurs. Or is it statistically acceptable, so no big deal?
How is the seeding done and what decides which teams fall in what lot? Is what we see by chance or are their other factors determining the pairings?
Perhaps CAF needs to copy the new format of the Uefa Champions League.
The format was approved on May 10 2022, following a Uefa decision April 19, 2021 to introduce a new competition system.
The Uefa Champions League has done away with the group stage system.
Instead, 36 clubs (an increase of four), are now participating in a league phase where all of them are ranked together.
Teams will end up playing eight matches each. They will no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face fixtures against eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-leg play-off to secure the remaining slots in pre-quarter-finals.
Uefa even explained how the fixtures would be determined.
The teams were ranked in four seeding pots with each team drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.
This would guarantee clubs playing eight different fixtures, and effectively ending the scenarios, like we recently saw, of the so called smaller teams getting eliminated after just two fixtures by the big boys of Africa.
It will also increase the variety of fixtures in terms of the range of opponents teams face, and indeed spread African club football to all corners of the continent. And you bet, every match will be competitive to the last minute.
Why CAF has never thought of this format is as mysterious as how Kenyan clubs are frequently drawn against Egyptian opponents.
Federations should push for this system of competition. It makes so much sense.
