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Nigeria’s
flagbearers in both the Champions League and Confederation Cup
tournaments have been mandated to produce, among other things, security
guarantees and the medical certificates of their players by Africa’s
football governing body, CAF. Enyimba and Kano Pillars will be
representing Nigeria at the CAF Champions League, while the duo of
Kaduna United and Sunshine Stars will be doing likewise at the CAF
Confederation Cup.

Enyimba and Kano
Pillars will commence their respective quests in the Champions League
this weekend with the latter taking on Mighty Barolle of Liberia in
Monrovia, with Enyimba, champions of Africa in 2003 and 2004, locking
horns with Michel de Ouenze of Congo in Brazzaville. And according to
the assistant general secretary in charge of competitions at the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mohammed Sanusi, valid medical and
insurance papers, as well as security guarantees are mandatory for
these clubs in line with directives from the continental football body.

Speaking on Tuesday
in Abuja at a meeting with representatives of two of the four clubs,
Sanusi informed Enyimba’s chairman, Felix Anyansi-Agwu and his Kaduna
United counterpart, Sabo Babayaro that the stipulated conditions for
taking part in CAF competitions must be strictly adhered to by the
teams. Kano Pillars and Sunshine Stars failed to send representatives.

Medical certificates

“Medical
certificates of fitness and insurance that cover all the 25 players
that you have registered are very important,” Sanusi said. “CAF will
not accept anything less.

“You must also be
prepared to extract from your state government a letter of security
guarantee for visiting teams, duly signed by the state governor.

“You must also be
ready to take good care of your players and officials while playing at
home and abroad, as well as the players and officials of visiting
teams, and also fulfil the mandatory obligations for match officials,”
he added.

The clubs are also
mandated to provide standard playing pitches, as well as good and
functional dressing rooms at their home ground. In addition, a
functional fax machine and photocopier must be at the stadium along
with adequate security before, during and after every match. Also at
the meeting, the NFF presented new CAF flags to the clubs present.

In a related development, CAF has released the names of the match
officials for this weekend’s matches involving Kano Pillars and
Enyimba. Officials for the game in Monrovia are from Guinea Bissau
while the officials for the tie in Brazzaville are from Chad. The
winner at the end of the two-legged tie between Kano Pillars and Mighty
Barolle will come up against the winner of the game between Morocco’s
Wydad Casablanca and Ghana’s Aduana Stars in the next round, while the
winner of the Enyimba-Ouenze game will square up against either Union
Sportive de Bitam of Gabon or Les Astres de Douala of Cameroon in the
next round.