Pitso wants better ranking for Ahly in Club World Cup

Pitso Mosimane is of the view that Al Ahly should get a bye to the semifinals of the Fifa Club World Cup, insisting that Africa has done well in the previous edition as opposed to teams from the South American Football Confederation (CONMENBOL) federation.

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According to current ratings, Confederation of African Football (Caf) teams get a bye into the second round but that seems to not be enough as “Jingles” wants that to change and see Caf take the spot of CONMENBOL teams, Ahly beat CONMENBOL’s 2020 representative, Palmeiras, in the battle for the bronze medal.

“If you go to the final of the Champions League, you first have to take care of the game that you are playing and then after that you can talk about the World Cup,” said Mosimane.  

“Now that we have done that, we want to try and go back because last year we brought a medal for Africa. We did not win it but we brought the medal because if you play against Bayern Munich it is not going to be easy. Bayern is a big team and this time you are going to find Chelsea and the team from Conebol,” he added.  

This year’s edition will be staged in Japan later at the end of this year and Mosimane would be happy if the Red Devils play fewer games this time around. “Jingles” will be guiding Ahly to their seven appearances in the competition and improve last season’s third place finish.

“It is an adventure and it is good for us, let’s see how Africa is at this point in time. I think Africa can stand up against CONMENBOL because we beat them last year and Fifa will probably look at this edition differently.

“Why should we play more games than CONMENBOL nations, what is the difference? We beat them last year so the playing field should be level at this point in time,” said Mosimane who will be participating in his third Club World Cup after guiding Mamelodi Sundowns in 2016 before leading the Egyptians last season.