Football: Airtel Cup-Champs Côte d’Or to play in pool A |03 May 2013

The Praslin-based team learned of their opponents in yesterday afternoon’s draw held at telecommunication company Airtel headquarters, Providence.

They have been drawn alongside St Michel, Anse Reunion, St Roch and The Lions in pool A.

Pool B is made up of La Passe, LightStars, Northern Dynamo, St Louis Suns and St Francis.
Only first division teams take part in the Airtel Cup.

The teams will meet each other twice on a league format in their respective pools. The top-two sides will then move on to the cross knockout semifinals.

The Seychelles Football Federation has said the Airtel Cup will start on May 17, at the end of the first round of matches in the Barclays league division one.

Praslin side Côte d’Or wrote a piece of local football history last year when they claimed the scalp of defending Airtel Cup champions St Michel to win their first title. They won 1-0 at Stad Linite amid jubilant scenes by their supporters who had travelled all the way from Praslin. The victory reverberated on Praslin as it was the first time a team from the country’s second biggest island had won a major silverware in local football.

St Michel, whose first Airtel Cup win was in 2004, had won the title for four consecutive years – 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The other past winners of the Airtel Cup, which started in 2003, are La Passe (2003), Red Star (2005 and 2006) and Anse Reunion (2007).

G. G.