Sundowns to fly Mzansi’s flag in new AFL
THE eagerly anticipated African Football League (AFL) will include only five clubs ranked in the top 10 on the continent since Caf based their selection on three regional blocks.
The five top-10 clubs in the inaugural eight-team league are Al Ahly (1), Wydad AC (2), Esperance (3), Mamelodi Sundowns (4) and Simba (9).
The three clubs outside the African top-10 rankings are Enyimba, TP Mazembe and Atletico Petroleos de Luanda.
The three African regional blocks include the North Region, Centralwest Region and South-east Region.
The North Region teams include Egyptian giants Al Ahly, Tunisia’s
on the coldest days. The stronger scents have been producing the bites on both conventional and specimen fronts.
The conventional anglers have reported good fishing while using the garlic, tcp and gumtree. These have been the top three flavours/ scents reported from most of the venues. The winter water is generally a lot cleaner than in summer.
This means a fluorescein dye will greatly increase the attractiveness of your bait. Green and red are the two most popular.
Adding some of the powder in to your mealie bomb will put up a smoke cloud, leading the fish straight to your bait.
The specimen anglers have seen good results from the fishy flavours and by adding oils into their feeding mix. This has led to some barbel catches but it is part of the territory.
The midlands have been cold for our trout anglers! This has not put the fish off; on the other hand the fishing has been rather good. Most of the trips up to the many stillwaters in trout country have yielded success for even the newcomers to the art of fly fishing.
Some of the venues have still reported good catches on orangecoloured flies, so make sure you do have something in orange to use if nothing is working.
Esperance and Morocco’s Wydad.
The Central-west Region clubs are Nigeria’s Enyimba Football Club and the DRC’S TP Mazembe.
The remaining three teams from the South-east Region include coach Rulani Mokwena’s Sundowns from South Africa, Angola’s Petro de Luanda and Tanzania’s Simba.
Interestingly, several countries in Africa’s top-10 rankings will not have teams playing in the AFL. These include Senegal (2), Algeria (4), Cameroon (7), Mali (8), Cote d’ivoire (9) and Burkina Faso (10).
The AFL will be run under the auspices of Caf, but Fifa will be an official partner and will play a role in providing exposure around the world.
The draw for the fixtures will be held in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday. Fixtures be played on a home-andaway
The stockies have been feeding fairly heavily on bulkier flies with a black woolly bugger continuing to come out tops.
The flexibility of this pattern in terms of retrieves is phenomenal! The larger fish have been a bit more selective with more realistic baitfish patterns producing some good results.
Please remember to leave the areas that you fish in a better condition than when you got there. Take a few moments to pick up some litter and take it to the nearest bin. basis.
The eight-team competition will start with knock-out quarter-finals, and will be followed by the semifinals and final. All rounds will be played over two legs.
This historic edition of the AFL will take place over four weeks.
It will kick off with the opening ceremony and the first match on 20 October in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The semis will take place between 29 October and 1 November. The final matches, which will determine the winner of the AFL competition will take place on 5 and 11 November.
The inaugural AFL is a precursor to the fully-fledged AFL competition, which will feature the 24 highestranked clubs in Africa and will commence during the 2024-25 season.
Tight lines and screaming reels
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