By Amaechi Agbo
The Confederation of Africa Football, CAF has confirmed Kwara United as Nigeria’s second representative at the 2022/2023 CAF Confederation Cup season
The continent’s football umpire made the confirmation on its website on Saturday as the draw for the 2022/2023 CAF Inter-club Competitions holds on Tuesday in Egypt.
However, the development have caused eyes brows to be raised against the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF for violating existing rule in the qualification for the second slot in CAF Confederation Cup.
According existing proceedings, the winner of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL and the club that places second qualifies for the continental premier league, the CAF Champions League.
While the 3rd placed team picks one of the available two slots for the second tier continental league, the Confederation Cup, the second slot is reserved for the Federation/FA Cup winner.
But with the Aiteo/Federation Cup organized by the NFF in the quarter-final stage currently, and CAF’s Inter-club competitions draw holding tomorrow in Cairo, the NFF has instead, surreptitiously submitted the name of the club that came 4th in the just concluded 2021/2022 NPFL season, Kwara United as Confederation Cup representative.
CAF announced on Saturday that the draw for the 2022-2023 Inter-club competitions preliminary rounds will be conducted on Tuesday, 09 August 2022 in Cairo, Egypt at 16h00 local time.
The draw will mark the beginning of a journey to the 2022/23 season of both CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup.
Wydad Athletic Club are the reigning CAF Champions League champions. Another Moroccan club, RS Berkane are the defending champions of the CAF Confederation Cup – having won the trophy twice in three years.
Nigeria football authorities have however not issued an official statement with regards to the submission of Kwara United’s name to CAF.
The preliminary rounds for the Inter-club competitions will commence on home-away bases from 9 – 11 and 16 – 18 September while the second round will be played between 7 – 9 and 14 – 16 October, 2022.
With this development, the Nigeria’s four representatives at the 2023 CAF Inter-club competitions are: Champions League – Rivers United and Plateau United. Confederation Cup – Remo Stars and Kwara United
It could be recalled that after the conclusion of the 2020/2021 NPFL season, Kwara United vowed to take the NFF to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS after the NFF Disciplinary Committee awarded Rivers United 3 points at the end of the league season which saw the Port Harcourt based side overtook Kwara United in 3rd position and thus qualified for that year’s Confederation Cup
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