The African Champions Cup was equally exotic to outsiders, but more troublesome than the Cup Winners Cup. Perhaps one has to look to the political history of Africa in order to get some meaning of seemingly anarchic football tournaments – internal and international conflicts, poverty, fantastic ambitious, propaganda reasons played big roles in the game. Because of apartheid, South Africa was expelled from the continental federation. Many countries did not participate in the club tournaments for various reasons – 28 teams participated in the 1979 Champions Cup, at least before the tournament started. Two withdraw without playing a match, curiously, they were paired together: Breweries (Kenya) and Al-Merreikh (Sudan). Bata Bullets (Malawi) followed suit without playing a match. Simba FC (Uganda) traveled to play the first leg against Zamalek (Egypt), lost 1-2, and withdraw. One may wonder why they they spent money on difficult travel to Egypt at all. Well, it was familiar picture – withdrawals happened every year. And not only in the first round.
At the 1/8 finals Matlama FC (Lesotto) had no opponent at all – thanks to the withdrawal of Breweries and Al-Merreikh in the first round. Ogaden Anbassa (Ethiopia) withdraw at this stage – another curiousity, typical of Africa: Odaden Anbassa did not play any match: they qualified to the 1/8 finals because Bata Bullets withdrew before the first round started. Now it was the turn of the Ethiopian champions to do the same. Zamalek qualified to the ¼ with only one home game so far: Simba FC decided not to play the second leg against the Egyptians in the first round and Odagen Anbassa – not at all in the second.
No club withdraw from the third round, but this does not mean all games were played: Zamalek won 3-1 the first leg against CS Imana (Zaire) at home. In the second leg CS Imana was leading 1-0 when the match was abandoned. The reason is murky, for African football is notoriously corrupt, but CS Imana was awarded a win and they reached the semi-finals. Zamalek was expelled – after playing a total of 2 and half matches, of which they won 2. There was another drama at the ¼ finals – Hafia (Guinea) played against Hearts Of Oak (Ghana): arguably, the strongest African club at the time vs the represent of arguably strongest football nation of the continent. Hafia won 2-0 in Conacry. The Ghanaian champions prevailed at home 3-0 and eliminated the closest to a super-club the continent had (Hafia was more than supported by the Guinean government: they were designed to be a show case of the country – all best players were moved to Hafia by political order).
The semi-finals were clean affair – in terms of results. CS Imana was obviously not that strong a team and they lost both legs to Union Douala (Cameroon): 1-2 and 0-1. The other semi-final was even less dramatic – Hearts of Oak were clearly superior to US Goree (Senegal). The Hearts won 2-1 in Senegal and 4-1 at home. At a glance, the finalists represented the top of the African football: the traditional ‘powerhouse’ Ghana vs rapidly developing and already leading on club level Cameroon.
Exciting or not, the final at least was played between equal opponents. Hearts of Oak won the first leg in Accra 1-0. The second leg was played in Yaounde – most likely because there was no big enough stadium in Douala – Union won also 1-0. The winner was decided by penalty shootout. Usually home turf benefits a team at such occasion, but Union was not playing at home… Still, there was home turf advantage – at least because supporters of visiting African teams were few, if any, back in the 1970s: it was expensive and difficult to travel abroad just to see a match. Union won the shootout 5-3 and triumphed in front of their cheerful fans. And that is almost all one could say about the final… no other records except the results can be traced.
Hearts of Oak, very old by African standards club, popular and successful at home, were not so successful internationally. Yes, the represented arguably the strongest African football nation – but this to a point is also a myth, for Ghana did not really dominate the continent neither on the level of national teams, nor at club level. There is no recognizable player traceable to the team reaching and losing the Champions Cup final – and this is a hint of the difference between winner and losers.
Union – Union Sportive Douala, as the full name is – triumphed with their first international trophy. It was more than club’s success: winning the cup testified for the strength of the whole Cameroonian football: the country won both African club trophies this year. It was a second consecutive year Cameroonians won the Champions Cup. The Cup went to Cameroon for a 4th time – after 1964, 1971, and 1978. It was not only teams from the capital winning internationally – suggesting high quality of Cameroonian football as a whole, not simply one or two clubs, where the best players of the country were brought together by governmental whim. And Union was not very old club – they were founded in 1957, yet, they were already 3 times champions of Cameroon, despite the fact that they had strong rivals in Douala, not to mention the competition of the clubs based in the capital Yaounde. So much can be extracted from the victory… for Union left almost no trace of themselves.
This may be a photo of Union from the great season… at least, it is a picture from that period. No names… not even the line-up from the final matches. Well, there was no particular interest in 1979 – the players were entirely unknown outside Cameroon. Nobody famous back then. The only player known to be part of the winning team is the goalkeeper – Joseph-Antoine Bell (b. 1954). Rings a bell? Of course – his career was spectacular, he was essential part of the successful Cameroonian national team. But fame came in the 1980s – in 1979 nobody knew of Bell, let alone recognizing him as a star. 25-years old, he was still nobody… as his teammates. Internationally, a nobody, but a winner nevertheless. Hard to imagine in 1979 that among the African club winners were two of the all-time best African goalkeepers – Bell and N’Kono.