By Amaechi Agbo

The Confederation of Africa Football, CAF has released the list of four Nigerian clubs among the licensed clubs to take part in the 2021/2021 CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup, www.bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

In the list published on CAF website Friday, the quartet of Nigeria clubs, Akwa United, Rivers United, Enyimba International as well as Bayelsa United were listed.

While Akwa United and Rivers United were listed among 54 clubs to take part in the Champions League, Enyimba, 2021 quater-finalists and Bayelsa United were listed among 52 clubs to battle for the Confederation Cup glory

The listing, according CAF is part of the engagement to the CAF Interclubs competitions 2021-22 season a club licensing procedure was conducted at the level of the CAF Member Associations for the clubs qualified to the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup 2021-22 edition.

The CAF interclubs competitions regulatory framework stipulates that all clubs (licence applicants) intending to participate in the CAF Interclubs competitions season 2021-22, must undergo the club licensing process with their respective Member Association (Licensor).

“All clubs that qualify on sporting merit for CAF club competitions must be granted a licence before they can actually take part in the competition,” part of the statement read.

CAF said that “The licence confirms that each club has met CAF’s minimum standards. The CAF member association acts as the licensor, assessing each applicant according to five criteria: sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administrative, legal and financial.”

The deadline date of 15 July 2021 was set by CAF for receiving the licensing decisions for the clubs affiliated to the Member Associations for their participation in the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and the TotalEnergies CAF Confederations Cup 2021-22 edition.

Specifically on the financial criteria, CAF has warned the Member Associations for the need to ensure that the clubs engaged in the CAF Inter-clubs’ competitions had no overdue payable cases arising from transfer activities and/or amounts due to players and coaches with final and binding decisions from the last competent authority as at 31 December 2020.

“As a result, with the enforcement of the CAF Club Licensing regulations, several disputes within the mentioned monitoring period were successfully settled between the parties,” CAF said.

In the end, a total of 54 clubs were licensed for the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2021-22 edition, while for the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup 2021-22 edition a total of 52 clubs were granted a license at the level of their respective Member Association.

Two Nigerian sides, Akwa United and Rivers United will be in Champions League action tomorrow, Sunday, September.

Bayelsa United will battle Ashanti Golden Boys on Sunday, September 19 in Yenagoa in a one-off match.

Enyimba will not be in action at this stage as they got a bye in the first preliminary round.