African Football League: The quarter-final calendar shifted by 24 hours
First check in this inaugural edition of the African Football League. Initially scheduled Wednesday, the last two quarterfinals return Wydad Casablanca-Enyimba and Espérance Tunis-TP Mazembe, were postponed from 24 hours, to Thursday, October 26.
The two matches will take place respectively at 4pm local time for EST-TPM and 7pm local time for WAC-Enyimba, the African Football League announced on Tuesday on its official website. While the first two quarters Al Ahly-Simba and Mamelodi Sundowns-Petro of Luanda remain scheduled on Tuesday, no reason has been given by the body to justify this postponement.
A few hours earlier, however, the Congolese Football Federation (Fecofa) had published a letter sent by TP Mazembe to the African Football Confederation (CAF) asking it to postpone its match from Wednesday to Thursday. To justify his request, the Congolese club, winner 1-0 of the first round, had highlighted the late relocation of the first leg to Tanzania which led him to establish a late flight program to Tunis, requiring a long trip of more than 9 hours with a stopover by N’Djamena in Chad.
For his part, Enyimba, beaten 1-0 at home on the first leg, faced the same problem to get to Morocco. The winners of these two quarters will face off on 29 October in the first leg semi-final. Both teams should therefore theoretically have the same rest time.
