BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Had Abia Warriors won the President Federation Cup in tie with El-Kanemi Warriors on Saturday, Enyimba FC would have been disqualified from the CAF Confederation Cup.

Entry for the registration for both Confederation Cup and the CAF Champions League close this Sunday.

Sources at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) informed Sports Village Square that the eligibility code for any of the inter-clubs competitions, does not allow two clubs owned fully or partially by the same person or body to feature in the same competition.

 Both Enyimba FC and Abia Warriors are known to be owned and funded by the Abia State Government.

Had Abia Warriors prevailed over El-Kanemi, they too, like Enyimba would have qualified for the Confederation Cup.

 Like in UEFA clubs competitions, CAF would not have allowed teams owned fully or partially by the same body to feature in the same competition. In this case, the CAF Confederation Cup.

 It would be a different issue, if one of the two were to be competing in the Champions League and the other in the Confederation Cup.

 This is stated in Section L.03 of Article 55 of the CAF Men’s Licensing Regulations (2022 edition).

 In accordance with the Regulations of CAF Confederation Cup which give precedence to the national cup winner over the third placed teams of the league in case of countries that qualified to enter two teams, the sacrificial lamb would have been Enyimba, whose position would have been taken by the next available team, Shooting Stars who  placed fourth on the log.

 It was partly in accordance to the Section IV of the CAF Confederation Cup Regulations (ENGAGEMENTS) that enabled the fourth placed Kwara United engaged in the 2022 edition as the entry closed while the Nigerian national cup was still at the quarter-final stage.