African football tournaments: The CAF Champions League

 

The CAF Champions League is a football tournament controlled by The Confederation of African Football that happens every year in Africa. The top teams/clubs from Africa’s top football leagues are invited to this tournament. The resulting winner of the tournament also gets to play in The FIFA Club World Cup which also happens every year. The tournament was founded back in 1964. The tournament starts of with 52 teams in total which compete in knockout phases until only 8 teams are left. The remaining 8 teams are divided into two groups of 4 with the winner and runner up of each group facing each other in the semi final and then the resulting final.

Previous Winners of CAF Champions League 

The current champions of the tournament are TP Mazembe while the most successful club to win the tournament is The Egyptian club Al-Ahly that have won it a record 6 times. Egyptian dominance has pretty strong over the years but is fading the last couple of years as Zamalek also an Egyptian club are no 2 on the all time list having won the tournament 5 times. The DR Congo club TP Mazembe are third in the list having won it 4 times and have won the last 2 editions of the tournament in 2009 and 2010.

Top 3 Milestones of Arsenal

Arsenal is one of the most famous, yet low-profiled football teams in England and Europe. Its influence could be well seen throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia; although admittedly its fan base is not as big as other giants alike. As a successful football team, Arsenal has had many great moments in the past years; the top three worthy of mentioning being;

• The first victory in the FA Cup final against Huddersfield Town in 1930,
• The victory in Cup-Winners’ Cup against Parma in 1994 and
• The record in the UEFA Champions League 2005–2006 season in going ten matches without conceding a single goal from any opponent.

To go in detail, their first victory against Huddersfield Town did not come by sudden surprise whatsoever and with the live airing over TV networks, things were made ten-fold more exciting by the media. The victory in Cup-Winners’ Cup against Parma in 1994 was also equally historical, although by then Arsenal was already famous for its string of continuous victories. As for the record in the UEFA Champions League 2005–06 seasons, Arsenal made a magnificent record in maintaining up to 995 minutes of game play without conceding to any goal from any opponent team, at least until the overturning goal from Barcelona.

5 Most Famous Football Leagues in the World

Football leagues are all around the world, taking turns to rule the modern media over a specified period of seasons; but sometimes, too many versions of the same may tend to be really confusing for the newbies. Among the most famous football leagues around the world would include the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the American National Football League, the Spanish La Liga, and the Italian Football league (divided into Lega Calcio and Lega Pro).

Among the above-mentioned five, the most famous football league in Europe, Africa, and Asia would probably be the UEFA Champions League and the English Premier League. The main reason for its popularity is largely due to the over-exposure of media coverage and the hype along the past decades, many say; but truly enough, the two are probably the most exciting soccer leagues in Europe, one respectively covering the English football clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, etc and the other bringing together larger giants such as Juventus, Valencia, Real Madrid, and many more. On the American shores, the National Football League rules the floor for American football; and likewise in Spain and Italy, their respective national football leagues are equally famous and important as well.