Prisons going for gold as Club championships throw off

As the Women's African Clubs Championship serve off on Wednesday, 21 April, in Kelibia Kenyan Champions Kenya Prisons and former champions Kenya Pipeline have set their sight on bringing back the lost glory as they hope the title will return to Kenya after eight years.

Prisons who last won the title in 2013 have landed a tricky pool A that has two teams from the host nation making it quite the task as they target finishing in the top two from the group to qualify for the semis.

Tunisia’s Sfax who are the hosts of the games and Kelibia will fight for the semis slots alongside the wardresses as well as Ethiopia’s Welaita and Muzinga OF Burundi. The other group has Pipeline taking on another Tunisian side, Carthage, Nigeria Customs, ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast, AS Douanes from Burkina Faso and Ethiopia’s National Alcohol.

“The draw is very tricky. Every team has come here to try and win matches and qualify for the next round. For Prisons, it is tricky because we have two teams from Tunisia but I only know one, Sfax which is a good team. I have not heard of Kelibia so we do not know what expect from them.

All in all, morale is high and the players are focused and ready for action. We know every team is a competitor and our focus is to win all our group matches. Our first mission is to qualify for the semi-final and if possible avoid meeting with Pipeline at that stage.

Our first match is very important. After traveling all this distance first matches are always tricky and they give one guidance on how they are going to handle the championship going forward. Our first match will be a learning experience as we did not get the chance to train indoors back in Kenya but we must put our heads together and win this first match,” said Prisons technical director David Lung’aho who has assumed the head coach role in the absence of Josp Barasa who remained behind with the women’s national team Malkia Strikers.

Pipeline are in a relatively fair pool with Carthage presenting the toughest challenege in the gropu stage for the Paul Gitau-coached side who are gunning for their sixth African title.

Pool A

1.Welaita Sodo-Ethiopia

2.Muzinga- Burundi

3.Kenya Prisons-Kenya

4.Sfax (host)- Tunisia

5.Kelibia-Tunisia

Pool B

1.Customs-Nigeria

2.Carthage – Tunisia

3.Kenya Pipeline- Kenya

4.ASEC Mimosas- Ivory Coast

5.AS Douanes- Burkina Faso

6.National Alcohol- Ethiopia 

Day 1 Fixtures

Nigeria Customs Services v National Alcohol 12pm

Kenya Pipeline v ASEC Mimosas 2pm

Kenya Prisons v Muzinga 4pm

Carthage v AS Douanes 6pm

Wolaita Sodo v Sfax 10.30pm