The Cup Winners Cup. Even less information than the Champions’ Cup… Two teams withdrew here – Ajuda Sports (Guinea Bissau) in the first round and Stationery Stores (Nigeria) in the 1/8 finals. Not bad – 32 out of 34 participants played. Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, and Egypt reached the semi-finals – still strange. Egypt, evidently, was strong – but no other country. Agaza Lome (Togo) and Al-Mokaoulun (Egypt) reached the final, which was decided in the first leg – Agaza Lome lost 0-1 at home. They tried to turn around the table, but managed only 0-0 tie in the inhospitable away match.
Agaza preserved nothing from the final – their highest achievement so far…
The winners left only the legacy of confusion. Al-Mokaoulun is club hard to find even today – not only it is often spelled in different ways in Latin alphabet, but the name more often used is Arab Contractors. Unlike Al-Ahly, a young club and very differently made – the closest to a professional club, privately founded, and belonging to business enterprise. Obviously, the set up was ambitious – good players were hired: if there is no mistake, the club employed the famous in later years Cameroonian goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell and the Ghanaian star Abdul Razak. Were they part of the winning team is hard to tell – at least Razak may have been hired after the victory. If anything, African football was seemingly moving toward proper professionalism – foreign players were scarce, but employed by clubs. No way foreigners were kept as amateurs – at least Al-Mokaoulun seemed entirely set to be professional club. Showing the road to the future, in a way – amateur football was no longer winning.