ADDIS ABABA – The seasons Ethiopian Premier League champions Mekele Saba Inderta and Ethiopian knock out holders Fasil City faced early exit from their international commitment.
The Ethiopian Premier League champions Mekele Saba Inderta who luckily played on their turf in the second preliminary leg finished level at 1-1 against the visiting side Equatorial Guinea’s Cano Sports Academy on Sunday. The result forced them to face exit with an aggregate 3-2 defeat.
Mekele had a better chance to overcome the first leg 2-1 deficit when they had a 1-0 lead in the first ten minutes but the visiting side managed to regain parity at the 37th minute. That helped Cano Sports Academy to go through to the qualifying stage.
Head Coach of Mekele Gebremedhin Haile in the end said that over excitement forced them to share the point with guest team.
“Minor error at the back gave them the equalizer. Gaining the lead at the initial stage was a good advantage but missing clear scoring chances led us to end our run in this way. My boys had created many scoring chances after they were in a 1-0 lead but they wasted all the chances,” he said.
Coach of Cano Sports David expressed delight for his deserved victory. “We had sufficient information that it is hard to beat Mekele on their home pitch and in front of their supporters. Knowing this we carefully played for a draw. We got what we wanted,” he said in a press briefing after the game.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian knock out holders who travelled to Tanzania suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the home team Azam on Saturday who advance in to the next round with a 4-2 aggregate result.
Fasil City had a 1-0 win over Azam in their first leg of the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup held at the Bahir Dar Venue a couple of weeks ago.
This was a bad omen for the newly appointed head coach Seyoum Kebede. Coach Wubetu Abate guided Fasil City to take the Ethiopian knock out title and gain the first leg 1-0 advantage against Azam. Wubetu resigned just a day after he played his first continental game against Azam.
Seyoum Kebede became in charge of Fasil City the next day. It was indeed a bad coincidence for Seyoum’s future career at Fasil. It was also a wrong decision for the club officials to accept Wubetu’s resignation before he guided the side for the second leg.
This was the first continental big meet for both Fasil City and Mekele Saba Inderta. It was also their first time to gain title in the local competition.
After suspending the Addis Ababa stadium from the international standard stadiums list,
CAF for the time being ordered Bahir Dar and Mekele stadiums to receive the international status.
Fasil primarily preferred to play on their home turf at Gondar but the games organizing body the Confederation of African Football, CAF, decided the match to be played in the internationally accepted stadium. Accordingly, Fasil City changed their venue from at Bahir Dar stadium in the first leg.
Following the inspection team sent to Ethiopia a few months ago, CAF has already decided that Ethiopia has no international standard stadiums. CAF inspected six stadiums in this assessment process. What were seen as below the international standards were dressing rooms, sanitation, and hygiene, sitting, lighting, and the turf? Though most of the stadiums assessed are newly built, they are incomplete, the CAF report that was sent to the EFF states.
In the course of time, CAF dropped the Addis Ababa stadium from the international standard list. So now the Ethiopian Sports Commission took every responsibility to fully renovate the 57-year old stadium. The then Haileselassie first stadium, renamed as Addis Ababa stadium just days after the fall Emperor Haileselassie in September 1974, was completed to host the third Africa Nations Cup staged in Addis Ababa in 1962. By then the participants were four sides including the host Ethiopia who came out the champions beating Egypt 4-2 in the final.
The Ethiopian Herald August 27, 2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
