eBusiness Weekly
Africa Moyo
Fc Platinum has won this year’s Castle Premier Soccer League title with four games to spare and uppermost in their minds are plans to reach the group stages of the Total CAF Champions’ League.
The Zvishavane-based team, which has won the title for the second season in a row, is set to confront Madagascan six-time league winners, CNaPS Sport.
FC Platinum was bundled out of the lucrative tournament in February this year by Angolan side Primeiro de Agosto on a 5-1 aggregate score line.
The team lost both legs, 3-0 away and 1-2 at Mandava Stadium while CNaPS won its home encounter against KCCA of Uganda 2-1, but were stunned 1-0 in the reverse fixture to bow out on away goals’ rule.
While the platinum miners did not break sweat in defending their domestic title, particularly after fierce rivals Ngezi Platinum meekly capitulated in the second half of the season, the drive to do well on the continent is a major motivator.
The team has already beefed up its squad following the acquisition of Triangle hitman Lameck Nhamo, Ian Nekati from ZPC and Rainsome Pavari from Bulawayo City.
The trio is expected to give bite to the team as it seeks to better last season’s performance in the CAF African Champions League.
FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza says he is gunning for the group stages of this season’s tournament.
“Our objective remains the same and that is reaching the group stages of the Total CAF Champions League and we believe we have learnt our lessons from the previous failures,” said Mapeza.
The team now wants its new recruits to join camp next week after match day 33 to allow them to develop an understanding with the rest of the squad.
Club spokesperson Chido Chizondo said they have taken the decision to ask the clubs to release the players early since they would have “very few days” to prepare if they were to wait until end of season.
FC Platinum plunge into battle against CNaPS Sport either on November 27 or 28.
The first leg is pencilled for Madagascar while the return leg would be played on December 4 / 5.
After the disappointment of last season in the CAF tournament, both FC Platinum and CNaPS would be keen to atone for the disastrous performances.
While Madagascar remains largely regarded as a lightweight in global football, tectonic plates have been shifting in recent years, and the team became the first to qualify for the Afcon 2019 to be staged in Cameroon.
The team stunned Equatorial Guinea in Malabo to book a place at the tournament for the first time in its history.
Interestingly, Madagascar pulled through in a group that includes African heavyweights Senegal and Sudan.
With CNaPS contributing five players to the national team including exciting midfielder, Haja Rasoanaivoarison, FC Platinum can only expect fireworks.
CNaPS Sport, known in full as Caisse Nationale de Prevoyance Sociale, has won six titles since 2010.
Crucially, the team has bagged five of the titles consecutively in the last five years.
Should FC Platinum overcome CNaPS, it faces the same “mountain” — Primeiro de Agosto — that denied it passage to the group stages this year.
Revenge will be top of the agenda when the two teams clash in Luanda on the weekend of December 14-16.
The return leg is scheduled for the weekend of December 21-23.
The winner qualifies for the group stages.
