Drawing
of lots
Al Ahly of Egypt
and Esperance of Tunisia in the death pool
 Misurata,
Libya, April 9, 2008- Thirteen teams will be competing
for the cup of the 2008 Men’sAfrican Clubs Champions
Championship which will start on Thursday here at the
Sports Games and Al Tassady halls inMisurata, Libya with
5 strong matches on the opening day.
The opening will feature a match for the organizers
Swaheli of Libya against VC Force Terrestre of RD Congo
in pool A. Pool B will show a good match between El
Guish of Egypt and Ahly Beni Ghazi of Libya. In pool
Cthere will be two tough matches Al Ahly of Egypt vs.
Sonel of Cameroon and Al Saggana of Sudan vs. Esperance
ofTunisia. Pool D will show one match GSU of Kenya vs.
FAP of Cameroon
The drawing of lots of the competition was held at Goz
El Teek hotel was attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr
Elwani, Local Organizing committee president Ayad El
Misurati, Control Committee President AbdelhadiGhzali,
Referee commission president Hassan Ahmed and CAVB
technical director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.
As the defending champions Mouloudia of Algeria had a
last minute withdrawal, Ahly, Zamalekof Egypt and
Esperance of Tunisia come as competition big favorites.
 With
8 titles under their built, Al Ahly of Egypt has the
record of victories and comes as bigfavorites to get the
ninth. Although they lost the local league against their
arc rivals Zamalek last week the head coach ofthe team
Nour Eddine Attia is very optimistic to regain the
African leadership after their last winner in 2006 under
hissupervision. The team was the first to arrive to
Misurata for a 6 days local camp before the opening of
thecompetition. “We lost the league this season but
still we have the local cup at the end of this month and
this competition,” Said Attia.“I’m happy that my players
regained their confidence after their victory over
Zamalek in the final league match afterZamalek settled
the competition to their side.” He added.
The winners of the championship 2 times Zamalek will be
great contenders with their star studded squad including
9
players with a world class competitions experience. Led
by the best player in the Egyptian league Mohamed Abdel
²€
Moneim and the Egyptian National team setter Ashraf
Aboul Hassan, Zamalek will be a strong team to face. “We
need to
add one more cup to our achievements in this competition
and to continue our success in this historic season.”
Said
Zamalek head coach Ahmed Moustafa.
 El
Guish of Egypt which was the surprise of the last
competition in Niger wants to continue the high
performance the
team showed in both the local league and the African
competitions. Their experienced head coach will depend
on many
experienced players like the national team setter Maged
Moustafa, the strong opposite Mohamed Gabal and the left
attacker Islam Awad who was an important factor in
gaining the silver medal in 2007.
Coming with many experienced national team players,
Esperance of Tunisia will fight hard to bring back the
Tunisian
volleyball to its well known position after the negative
result of Tunisia in the African Olympic Qualifications
in South
Africa last February where they ended fourth. Esperance
with three previous titles searches now for the fourth
with
many prominent players in their line up like Marwan
Fehri and Khalid Belaid.
 The
organizing country will be represented by three clubs,
the actual organizer Swehli and both Ahly Tripoli and
Beni
Ghazi. Swehli that ended second in the last year’s
Libyan league will be supported by their well known
motivated
spectators and wants to use this for their side. The
Libyan champions Ahly Beni Ghazi will be great
contenders for the
cup with their star studded team. Ahly Tripoli that
ended third in the Libyan league will use its big
popularity in the biggest
city in the country.
GSU of Kenya that was between the last four in the last
competition and ended fourth had a long training program
that
ended by a four weeks local camp during which the team
started their matches in the local league that end in
November.
The head coach Moses Epiloto was confident to have the
same success this year although he tried to add more
young
players in the last few months. “We added four new
players now, but we will add more this season,” Said
Epiloto. “I think
we have to advance now one or more steps in the final
ranking.” He added.
FAP will be one of the two Cameroon representatives in
this competition and wants to secure a place in the
semifinal
that goes equivalent to the great advance showed by the
national team in the last African Olympic qualifications
early
this year. The winners of the last Cameroon league ahead
of the second Cameroon team Sonel that will also
participate
in this competition will be great contenders for the cup
with their four stars in the national team. The head
coach Mayam
Blaise had a shorter preparation than he planed because
the proposed a training camp in Douala but it was
cancelled,
but he is optimistic to go far in the competition.
Sonel which was ranked second in the last year’s local
league will seek a big jump towards the cup using their
well built
and highly physical players. Sonel wants also to be the
only winner coming from other zone than the Northern
region.
Sudan will be represented by the champions of the last
three years Daim Hamad and the runner up Al Saggana.
Daim
Hamad just settled the title of the Sudanese league last
week and the players are fit enough now to compete. The
Chinese head coach Hua Sun was happy with his team
performance in the local league and hopes to continue
the same
in the African championship.
VC Force Terrestre of RD Congo come to this competition
to gain experience following their victory with the
local
league. The head coach Vicky Mawa is happy to win the
local league but he knows that this kind of competitions
is much
difficult than the local one.
Pools
Pool A: Swehli (Libya)- VC Force Terrestre (RD Congo)-
Zamalek (Egypt)
Pool B: El Guish (Egypt)- Ahly Beni Ghazi (Libya)- Daim
Hamad (Sudan)
Pool C: Al Ahly (Egypt)- Sonel (Cameroon)- Al Saggana
(Sudan)- Esperence (Tunisia)
Pool D: Ahly Tripoli (Libya)- GSU (Kenya)- FAP
(Cameroon)
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