2011 Men’s African Club Championship all set to kick off in Egypt
The 2011 Men’s African Club Championship is scheduled to run from April 28 to May 7.
The Egyptian capital city Cairo will host the thrilling competition, while Abdalla El Faysal Hall in Ahly Club will set up the field for play. A total of 16 African clubs will participate in the tournament. The African Club Championship will serve as the
qualification tournament for FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship.
Out of 16, only one team will get a chance to represent Africa in at the FIVB Club World Championship in Doha, Qatar. The African Teams are fully prepared to show their thirst for the berth in the mega international event of Club World Championship.
Initially, it was expected that 22 teams will become part of the competition and event was supposed to be held in Morocco. However, Morocco failed to get the sponsorship for the African Club World Championship and withdrew from the competition.
In the meantime, Egypt availed the opportunity and confirmed to the host the qualification tournament. Nonetheless, the change of venue affected many of clubs and the number of participants squeezed to 16.
These sixteen teams will be divided into four pools and four teams will be placed in each pool. The drawing of lots for the competition is expected to be completed today, Wednesday, April 27, 2011. The competition will be opened with the first preliminary
robin round, while top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals will be followed by more influential semi-final matches and then the final showdown of the tournament will decide on the champion team.
This is the third time that Egypt will be hosting the African Club Championship. Previously, they hosted the event in 2003 and 2009. Egypt is considered one of the pre-favourites of the tournament. They Egyptian Men’s Volleyball Club, Al Ahly has captured
8 African Titles in the previous editions of the championship.
This time around, the team is totally shaped up to add another victory to their count. They will be equipped stupendous support of local fans and team has bright prospects to win the qualification for the 2011 FIVB Club World Championship.
Likewise, other top African club teams such as Algerian Blida, Setif and Kenya Prisons will also be on board to vie for the ticket to the FIVB Club World Championship. It will be interesting to watch them colliding at the centre court. Let’s see which team
proves to be the best.
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