2019 CAF Super Cup
ES Tunis 1-2 Raja Casablanca
Thani bin Jassim Stadium, Al Rayyan-Qatar
Friday, 29-03-2019
Former KCCA FC and Onduparaka FC striker Muhammad Shaban’s Moroccan side Raja Casablanca are the current CAF Super Cup holders.
This was confirmed on Friday night as the Moroccan side defeated Esperance 2-1 in the 2019 final.
Unlike in the past, the Super Cup which is played between the year’s CAF Champions League and Confederations cup holders, was this time played in Qatar.
In the game played at the Thani bin Jassim Stadium in Al Rayyan, Abdelilah Hafidi and Captain Badr Banoun scored for Raja while substitute Youcef Belaili was on target for Esperance.
Hafidi struck 22 minutes to hand the Moroccans the lead, one they held time halftime.
Esperance took the initiative after halftime and were reward with an equalizer on 57 minutes when Belaili who had replaced Saad Bguir at the start of the second half, converted from close range.
However, it was to be Raja Casablanca’s day and they had 25 year old Banoun to thank for scoring what proved out to be the winner 26 from time.
The triumph is Raja’s second in history after winning their first Super Cup in 2000.
This was their third appearance at the stage as they were losing finalists 1998 when they were beaten by Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel.
Unfortunately for Shaban who featured in Uganda Cranes’ 3-0 loss to Tanzania in the AFCON qualifiers last week, he was not among the match-day squad.
What you need to know about the CAF Super Cup:
The CAF Super Cup is an annual African Association Football competition contested between the winners of the Total CAF Champions League and the Total CAF Confederations Cup.
The competition was first held in 1993 and is organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) (CAF).
It is the continental equivalent of the UEFA Super Cup in European and Recopa Sudamericana in South American club football.
The competition was previously contested between the winners of the Total CAF Champions League (called African Cup of Champions Clubs from 1964 to 1996) and African Cup winners’ cup until 2004 when the Cup Winners’ Cup was discontinued.
The last Super Cup in this format was the 2004 CAF Super Cup between Enyimba and Etoile du Sahel which Enyimba won 1–0.
In 2004 the CAF Cup Winners’ Cup was merged with CAF Cup into the newly established CAF Confederations Cup which acts as Africa’s second-tier international club competition, (analogous to the UEFA Europa League in European football) and since 2005 the competition is contested in its current format.
In July 2016, Total secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to support 10 of its principal competitions.
Total started with the Africa Cup of Nations that was held in Gabon therefore renaming it Total Africa cup of Nations. Due to this sponsorship, starting from 2017 the tournament is called the “Total CAF Super Cup”.
