Africa was almost unnoticed in 1980, but football was played, of course. At a glance, international football was less disorganized and chaotic than before. Only 2 clubs withdrew from the African Champions Cup – Limbe Leaf Wanderers (Malawi) and Comercial Bank (Uganda). All other participants played and the tournament was played without visible scandals. Cameroon was represented by 2 teams – Union (Douala) as African Cup holders and Canon (Yaounde) as champion of the country. Both reached the semi-finals, proving once again the superiority of Cameroonian club football. The other two semi-finalists represented old power and emerging new one: AS Bilima (Zaire) and Bendel Insurance (Nigeria). AS Bilima eliminated Union (Douala) – 0-1 and 5-1 at home, but Bendel Insurance was unsuccessful against Canon – they managed a 0-0 tie in Yaounde, but were destroyed 2-4 in front of their home crowd. So, the final was between Canon and AS Bilima. On November 30 Canon struggled, hosting the first leg of the final – 2-2 at their stadium Militaire Garoua, Yaounde. Like in the semi-final, Canon was stronger visitor than host – on December 14 AS Bilima had no chance at 20th May Stadium in Kinshasa. Canon destroyed them 3-0! And won their 3rd African Champions Cup!
AS Bilima is a bit of a mystery – the club is old by African standards, but finding information about them is very difficult. They were found as AS Dragons and most of the time used the original name. But a few years in the second half of the 1970s the club was known as AS Bilima. Bilima left practically no information, not even a crest of its own. However, this was excellent season for them – they lost only 2 matches in the tournament: one in the semi-final and one in the final. Unfortunately, the second loss was crucial one – the Cup went elsewhere.
Arguably, Canon was the strongest African club at the time – their rival was Hafnia (Conakry), but it looked like the Guineans were fading away already. Canon, however, was getting only better.
As for the team, the world knew only one player of the African champions – Jean Manga-Oungene. He was already 34 years old – too old to attract the interest of any European club, but he perhaps had the respected career on the African continent: this was his 4th international cup won with Canon. It was another player of this team to become a household name around the world – but in 1982. Canon was doing really well since 1970: 5 Cameroonian titles, 5 Cameroonian Cups, 3 times African club champions, one African Cup Winners Cup – and three continental cups in succession: Champions Cup in 1978, Cup Winners Cup in 1979, and again Champions Cup in 1980. Excellent record.