The 2020 CAF Super Cup (officially the 2020 Total CAF Super Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 28th

CAF Super Cup The CAF Super Cup, known as TotalEnergies CAF Super Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual African association football competition contested between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. The competition was f ...

, an annual

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

match in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

organized by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF), between the winners of the previous season's two CAF club competitions, the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

and the

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

. The match was played between

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French language, French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to mo ...

from

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, the

2018–19 CAF Champions League The 2018–19 CAF Champions League (officially the 2018–19 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 2 ...

winners, and

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, the

2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup The 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2018–19 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under t ...

winners, at the

Thani bin Jassim Stadium The Thani bin Jassim Stadium (), also known as the Al-Gharrafa Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in the Al Gharrafa district of Al Rayyan (city), Al Rayyan, Qatar. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches. Al-Gharaf ...

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

on 14 February 2020. This season was the first to be played according to the new calendar, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017. The match was initially scheduled on 16, 17 or 18 August 2019, but was postponed. The CAF announced on 21 November 2019 that the match would be played on 14 February 2020 in Doha, Qatar. The match was played in the

Middle Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

country for the second consecutive season, after signing a three-year agreement with the CAF the previous season.

announced in November 2019 that they would not play the match in Qatar due to the

Qatar diplomatic crisis The Qatar diplomatic crisis was a high-profile deterioration of relations between Qatar and the Arab League between 2017 and 2021. It began when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt simultaneously severed their bilateral relat ...

. However, the club's board voted in February 2020 to play in the match. Zamalek won the match 3–1, winning their fourth CAF Super Cup title.

Teams

Venue

The match was played at

. The stadium has a capacity of 21,175 and is the home venue of

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League (; abbreviated as QSL), known as Ooredoo Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation wi ...

side Al Gharafa. It was one of the five venues that hosted the

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the secon ...

in the country.

Format

The CAF Super Cup is played as a single match at a neutral venue, with the CAF Champions League winners designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes. If the score is tied at the end of regulation,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

will not be played, and the

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

will be used to determine the winner (CAF Champions League Regulations XXVII and CAF Confederation Cup Regulations XXV).

Background

The match was the fourth CAF Super Cup to feature an Egyptian and a Tunisian team, with all previous three matches ending in favor of the Egyptian side.

qualified to the match after their controversial win against

Wydad Casablanca Wydad Athletic Club (, ), often known outside Morocco as Wydad Casablanca, is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca. Wydad AC is best known for its professional football team that competes in Botola, the top tier of the Moroccan football ...

in the

2019 CAF Champions League Final The 2019 CAF Champions League Final was the final of the 2018–19 CAF Champions League, the 55th edition of Africa's premier club association football, football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 23rd edi ...

, where they were declared champions after the second leg was abandoned.

earned a place in the match after defeating

RS Berkane Renaissance Sportive de Berkane () commonly referred to as Nahdat Berkane or RS Berkane for short, is a Moroccan professional football club based in Berkane, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football. Founded on 21 May 1938 a ...

in the 2019 CAF Confederation Cup Final 5–3 on penalties after being tied 1–1 on aggregate. This was the seventh meeting between both teams in African competition. All of their previous six encounters were in the Champions League, including the 1994 final which was won by Espérance de Tunis where they grabbed their only victory against Zamalek in the second leg. The rest of the meetings resulted in two wins for Zamalek, including an away win in 2005, and three draws between the two teams.

Pre-match

Nine days before the match, the 2019–20 CAF Champions League knockout stage draw was held at the Hilton Pyramids Golf in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and resulted in Zamalek being drawn against Espérance de Tunis; meaning that both teams would face each other three times in three weeks. Prior to their league game against US Tataouine, Espérance de Tunis announced that defender

Abdelkader Bedrane Abdelkader Bedrane (; born 2 April 1992) is an Algerian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Saudi Professional League club Damac and the Algeria national team. He has also appeared for Algeria A' team. Career statistics Club ...

has suffered from a

torn ligament A sprain is a soft tissue injury of the ligaments within a joint, often caused by a sudden movement abruptly forcing the joint to exceed its functional range of motion. Ligaments are tough, inelastic fibers made of collagen that connect two or m ...

and would be sidelined for at least three weeks, missing the CAF Super Cup as a result. Zamalek captain Mahmoud Shikabala suffered from an injury during training with the club in January 2020 and was still in the recovery stage. He was included by

Patrice Carteron Patrice Carteron (born 30 July 1970) is a French football manager and former player who is the head coach of Persian Gulf Pro League club Sepahan. Some of his previous managerial posts include the Mali national team, Al-Nassr and Al-Ettifa ...

in the club's traveling squad to Qatar, but did not appear in the starting eleven or on the bench.

Match

Officials

On 10 February 2020, CAF named South African referee

Victor Gomes Victor Miguel de Freitas Gomes (born 15 December 1982) is a retired South African football referee. He is the current chairman of the SAFA Referees Committee. A PSL referee since 2008, Gomes was voted PSL Referee of the Season in 2012–13 an ...

as the referee for the match. Gomes is considered one of Africa's finest referees and consistently appeared in all CAF major competitions since 2013. His compatriot Zakhele Siwela was chosen as one of the assistant referees, along with Mosotho official Souru Phatsoane, while Maguette N'Diaye of Senegal was chosen as the fourth official. Zambian referee

Janny Sikazwe Janny Sikazwe (born 1979) is a former Zambian international football referee. He got his big break in 2008 at COSAFA U-20 Challenge Cup in South Africa when he was called to replace another referee who had failed a fitness test. On 7 January ...

was named the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

and was assisted by Mustapha Ghorbal from Algeria and Gerson Emiliano dos Santos from Angola.

Details

References

External links

Total CAF Super Cup
CAFonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Super Cup 2020 (February)

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

Espérance Sportive de Tunis matches Zamalek SC matches 2019–20 in Tunisian football 2019–20 in Egyptian football International club association football competitions hosted by Qatar February 2020 sports events in Asia