Wednesday 28, August 2024 {HMC} Battling to re-establish football across the nation, Somalia’s football ecosystem took a step forward on the pitch with Dekedda SC becoming the first club in nearly four decades to qualify for the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League.

Wagad FC, in 1988, was the last Somali club to advance this far in Africa’s top club competition, after it shared points with Pantheres Noires of Rwanda in a match that ended in 2-2 stalemate in Kigali, with Wagad winning the return leg 1-0 in Mogadishu.

Dekedda Sports Club are hoping to go a stage further after beating Djibouti’s Arta Solalr7 on aggregate 5-4 in a match played at Azam Sports Complex in Dare Es salaam, Tanzania.

They now face Esperance of Tunisia in the second preliminary round.

“This triumph sends a clear message that Somali football is growing. We will continue to do our best to take Somali football to a greater position,” said Somali Football Federation president, Ali Abdi Mohamed.

Mohamed, who has been touring the country speaking to local authorities, clubs and players about development, saw first-hand the challenges in El-Dheer (300km east of Mogadishu), a town that was until recently under the control of Al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda forces.

A four-team tournament was staged for the first time in 16 years. Matches were played on rough ground with the teams playing barefoot as they have no money for boots.

Abdirizak Ali Hussein, who captained Barxadda neighborhood team: “Many teams are here in El-Dheer, but we don’t have a proper football facility. We ask the Somali Football Federation to build a stadium for us because we are very much in need of a proper football facility.”

“The main objective for my trip to the town was to see the situation of football here and to decide what we can do to help the people of El-Dheer. In the first phase the SFF will send trainers to educate coaches, referees and administrators,” said Mohamed.

“The town needs a football ground and we will raise the issue with FIFA and I hope we will be able to get a proper facility for El-Dheer.”