Ethiopian football at cross roads!

www.simplesharebuttons.com Share this post...

It is only March but in Ethiopia the football fraternity is already reeling under some disappointment following the ejection from CAF interclub championships of local top sides Dedebit and Defence FC. The duo’s ejection comes on the back of a poor run at the Orange African Nations Championship (CHAN) where the home-grown Walya failed to live up local expectations.

Ethiopian League champions Dedebit opened their CAF Champions League crusade with a narrow 3-2 aggregate win over Zanzibar side KMKM in the preliminary round only to come unstuck in the first round against Tunisian side C.S Sfaxien. Courtesy of a 2-1 triumph over Dedebit, the Tunisians made it a second successive winning trip to Addis Ababa in as many years. Last year in the Orange CAF Confederation Cup, Sfaxien beat Ethiopia club side St George 3-1 in the group stage match stadium. Once Dedebit was beaten at home, not many expected them to win away in Sfax and the reality of no Ethiopian teams going beyond the first round loomed large.

Sfaxien won the return leg 2-0 to go through while Dedebit headed back to Addis Ababa to concentrate on domestic honours and complete a disappointing opening three months of football for Ethiopia.

The country’s representatives in the Orange CAF Confederation Cup, Defence FC fared even worse in this year’s competition. The Army outfit succumbed to Kenya’s AFC Leopards in both games; losing 2-1 at home and 2-0 away in Nairobi to exit at preliminary stage. Earlier in the year, Ethiopia made its debut at the CHAN finals with many describing the qualification as confirmation that Ethiopian football was in ascendancy and the country was steadily climbing back to the top table of African football. Comparisons were made to the era of the 60s and 70s during which period Ethiopia won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 1962 regularly competed at the finals.

In 2013, Ethiopia rose from a long time absence – 31 years – of AFCON absence and joined 15 other sides in South Africa. Although the Walyas did not reach the second round, their brand of football and hordes of enthusiastic fans were a welcome fresh breath to the tournament. With qualification for CHAN 2014 and St George’s miss to become the first Ethiopian side to reach the Champions’ League group stage, the omens looked bright for Africa’s second most populous nation. St George missed out on a Champions League 2013 group stage place on away goal difference after finishing 3-3 with Egypt’s Zamalek. The Addis Ababa outfit would still make history by becoming first Ethiopian side to reach groups stage of the second tier CAF club competition – the Confederations Cup.

Ethiopia lost all three matches at CHAN 2014 (2-0 to eventual winners Libya; 1-0 to both Ghana and Congo Brazzaville) and upon returning home, coach Sewnet Bishaw who had led the revival was relieved of his duties and the search to replace him is still ongoing. Debate in the country is raging with some calling on the new Ethiopian Football Federation President Junedin Basha to assure local coaches’ continuity by looking no further than the twosome of local coaches; Wubetu Abate and Yohannes Tesema from the huge list of 27 that have applied for the vacancy. Among the applicants are two Italians, two Serbians, two Dutchmen and two Argentines.