Cup Winners Cup. A bit more exotic than the Champions Cup – withdrawals and penalties, of course, but on somewhat another level. Waxool (Somalia) was disqualified for fielding an ineligible player and Racing Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Fasu) withdrew at the preliminary round. In the first round perhaps the most unusual penalty in the whole histroy of football was given: following crowd trouble at the end of the 2nd leg against Dragons de l’Oueme (Benin), Zairian CS Imana were forced by the African Football Federation to rename themselves DC Motema Pembe. What exactly happened remains hidden behind fairly innocent words ‘crowd trouble’. CS Imana lost the tie, but to whom the crowd’s wrath was directed? To their own team? To the visitors? To the referrees? Whatever happened, the punishment was extremely unusual. And finally there was purely political withdawal – it happened in the semi-finals, where Al-Nasr (Lybia) had to meet Al-Ahly (Egypt). Al-Nasr withdrew, no doubt following government orders and one can only guess what could have been, if these two teams were finalists: no final. The rest of the competition was normal – whatever ‘normal’ means in Africa. Al-Ahly (Egypt) and Leventis United (Nigeria) reached the final. On the way, Al-Ahly eliminated AS Marsa (Tunisia) 0-0 and 4-0, SC Simba (Tanzania) 1-2 and 2-0, Dragons de l’Oueme (Benin) 1-1 and 4-0 and reached the final after Al-Nasr refused to play in the 1/2 finals. Leventis United eliminated Old Edwardians (Sierra Leone) 0-0 and 4-1, Nga Horoya AC (Guinea) 0-0 and 1-1 – here thanks to away goal, ASC Jeanne d’Arc (senegal) 1-0 and 1-0, and AFC Leopards (Kenya) 2-0 and 0-1.
At the final, Al-Ahly won the first leg in Cairo 2-0 (Magdy Abdelghani and Zakaria Nassef scored) and lost the away match 0-1 (Bunmi Adigun scored for Leventis), thus winning the Cup Winners Cup on 2-1 aggregate.
This was the peak of the short-lived Nigerian club Leventis United – they existed only few years and left little information of themselves. Whether the foto is from 1985 or not is impossible to affirm, but it is ‘about there’.
The winners present similar problem – this could be a foto of them, but may be
this is more reliable picture of Al-ahly at least from year 1985, if not from the triumphal final. It was significant victory in many respects: first of all, Al-Ahly equalled the record of fellow rivals Al Mokauolom in two consecutive years. Second, they equalled the record of same Al Mokauolom, winning the trophy twice. Third, it was 4th year in a row the Cup Winners Cup was won by Egyptian club. Fifth, Arabic domination of African club tournaments was firmly established in the 1980s: teams from Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco won the Champions Cup in 1981, 1982, 1984, and 1985. Al-Ahly itself won it in 1982 and lost the final in 1983. The Cup Winners Cup was entirely Egyptian possession four year already – 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985. Al-Ahly itself was rapidly becoming one of the most African clubs too: 1 Champions Cup, 2 Cup Winners Cup, and one lost Champions Cup final. It was different time and old leaders lost gound – especially the successful Congolese/Zairian teams from the 1960s and the Cameroonians and Guineans from the 1970s.