MOZ/MAR - Defending Champions pull out of African Clubs Cup for Women
MEKNES (African Clubs Cup for Women) - The reigning champions of African Clubs Cup for Women (ACCW) Liga Desportiva de Maputo will not defend their title. The 12-team tournament runs from 22 November to 1 December in Moroccan city of Meknes, but the Mozambican club will not participate for administrative reasons. The club is currently competing a ...
MEKNES (African Clubs Cup for Women) - The reigning champions of African Clubs Cup for Women (ACCW) Liga Desportiva de Maputo will not defend their title.
The 12-team tournament runs from 22 November to 1 December in Moroccan city of Meknes, but the Mozambican club will not participate for administrative reasons.
The club is currently competing a domestic tournament with a reduced number of players, after the departure of Leia Dongue for Angolan club Primeiro D’Agosto and Catia Halar who is recovering from an ankle injury suffered at AfroBasket Women 2013.
Last year, Liga Desportiva de Maputo beat Angolan side Inter Clube de Luanda 53-43 in the ACC Final, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and saw three of their players named to the All-Tournament team, including Deolinda Ngulela, Dongue and Clarisse Machanguana.
The event gathers the top African clubs, and will be the first international competition since the 2013 AfroBasket Women held in Maputo, Mozambique, where the host nation finished runners-up and qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.
Liga Desportiva makes up the core of Mozambique’s women national team, and the decision of pulling out the ACCW hinders their World Championship preparations, says Nasir Sale, who serves as both the head coach of Liga Desportiva as well as the national team.
"Personally, I am hoping to attend the tournament in order to follow what is happening on the continent," Sale said.
Mozambique internationals Dongue and Deolinda Gimo play for D’Agosto: "It is an opportunity to check their progress since the AfroBasket Women," says Sale.
The tournament will consist of two Moroccan teams, including Club Omnisports de Mèknès (host club) and Ittihad Riadi de Tanger, First Deep Water and Dolphins (Nigeria), I.N.S.S and Arc En Ciel (Democratic Republic of Congo, Eagle Wings and IUSU (Kenya), Angolans Inter Clube de Luanda and Primeiro D’Agosto, and two teams are expected to be handed wild card invitation.
FIBA