Central African Republic

Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka / République Centrafricaine / Centrafrique / Central African Republic

• Capital: Bangui
• Population: 4,666,400 (2018 estimate)
• Official Languages: French, Sango
  
• Men’s Team Nicknames: Les Fauves (The Wild Beasts)
• Women’s Team Nicknames: n/a
• Association: Fédération Centrafricaine de Football (RCA)
• Top Male Domestic League: Central African Republic League Division 1
• Top Female Domestic League: Unknown
• FIFA Code: CTA

Records

• Best World Cup Result (Men): Not Qualified
• Best World Cup Result (Women): Not Qualified
• Best AFCON Result (Men): Not Qualified
• Best AFCON Result (Women): Not Qualified
• Best Olympics Result (Men): Not Qualified
• Best Olympics Result (Women): Not Qualified
• Best UNIFFAC Cup Result (Men): Runners-Up (1999)
• Best UNIFFAC Cup Result (Women): Fifth Place (2020)
• Best CEMAC Cup Result (Men): WINNERS (2009)
  
• Highest FIFA Ranking (Men): 49th (October 2012)
• Highest FIFA Ranking (Women): n/a
• Lowest FIFA Ranking (Men): 202nd (July-September 2009, March-August 2010)
• Lowest FIFA Ranking (Women): n/a
• Most Capped Player: Foxi Kéthévoama – 47 caps [as of December 2021]
• Top Scorer: Hilaire Momi – 10 goals

Introduction & Brief History

As its name suggests, the Central African Republic (République centrafricaine / Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka) is a landlocked country located in the centre of the African continent. The country shares a lot of land borders with other countries with Chad to its north, Cameroon to its west, the Republic of Congo to its southwest, the Democratic Republic of Congo to the southeast (and whose border the capital of Bangui is incredibly near to), South Sudan to the east, and Sudan to its far northeastern frontier. Due to its location on the continent, the country has been an important trade route throughout the centuries, and was the location of the Bangassou Kingdom during the 18th century. However, during the “Scramble of Africa”, the country came under the control of the French who eventually renamed the colony to Ubangi-Shari (named after the two major rivers, the Ubangi and Chari, that flow through the country), as part of French Equatorial Africa. After a decade of demands for electoral reform within the colony, led by Barthélemy Boganda, the country became an autonomous republic under its current name in 1958, before finally achieving its hard-fought independence in August 1960.

Sadly, despite having a significant amount of precious raw materials located within the country, the CAR is one of the continent’s poorest countries in the world, mainly as a result of continued political instability and disruption throughout the country’s history as an independent country. Even today, the Central African Republic is embroiled in a brutal civil war that has been fought since December 2012. Unfortunately, this lack of development is also portrayed in the country’s football team and domestic leagues, which are both regarded as one of the lower-ranked on the continent, especially its domestic league. Unsurprisingly, CAR has yet to qualify for a World Cup, and they are also one of a few countries on the continent that has yet to even qualify for an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) throughout their history.

For the majority of the Central African Republic national team’s history, it has failed to either enter or complete in a World Cup or AFCON qualifying campaign. It wouldn’t be until attempting to qualify for the 2002 World Cup that Les Fauves would finally complete a World Cup qualifying campaign, although that would only consist of a two-legged tie against Zimbabwe which they lost 4-1 on aggregate. They have only started to consistently compete in World Cup qualifying since the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. It was during this World Cup qualification schedule that the Central African Republic managed to achieve their first victory by beating Botswana 2-0 in Bangui during the Second Round group phase. Although, it wouldn’t be until the qualification campaign for the 2022 World Cup that CAR would achieve their second-ever victory with a historical 1-0 win away win over Nigeria (more on that further down the blog).

In terms of qualifying for the AFCON, their first campaign came by attempting to qualify for the 1988 edition of the continental tournament. However, that was a brief run that ended in a 7-2 aggregate loss to the Republic of Congo. Their next qualifying attempts would be for the 2002 and 2004 AFCON tournaments, although they would again miss out on progression to the finals on both attempts. There would be yet another long gap before entering AFCON qualification, with the Central African Republic next competing in the 2012 qualifying campaign, although they have entered every AFCON qualification format since then. It was during this campaign that they would achieve their first-ever competitive victory in either World Cup or AFCON qualifying by beating Algeria 2-0 in Bangui during the qualification group phase.

It was around the early 2010s where the Wild Beasts had their best chances to qualify for an AFCON tournament. Firstly, for the 2012 campaign, they finished second in their qualifying group, staying undefeated against group winners Morocco and beating Algeria at home, but were unfortunate to not progress to the finals tournament as one of the best-performing second-placed teams. For the 2013 campaign, they managed to defeat continental giants Egypt 4-3 on aggregate in the first round of qualification, and won the first leg of the second-round match against Burkina Faso. Sadly, a second-half collapse in the second leg saw CAR agonisingly miss out on qualification by losing to Burkina Faso 3-2 on aggregate with their opponents scoring an injury-time decider goal. They would also finish as group runners-up for qualifying for the 2017 tournament, finishing behind the Democratic Republic of Congo, and ahead of Angola and Madagascar, but again missed out on qualification after failing to be one of the two best second-placed teams. In the most recent AFCON qualifiers for the 2021/22 tournament, they finished bottom of their group, finishing behind Morocco, Mauritania, and Burundi, with CAR managing to get their only win against the latter team in their opening group game.

Despite CAR’s failure to qualify for a major tournament so far, it looks like the future could be very promising for the country with a seemingly talented young generation progressing through their youth teams. Just recently, their under 20 team qualified for the 2021 U20 AFCON tournament – their first appearance in the tournament since 1981, and performed very well. Even though they were drawn in a tough group alongside Burkina Faso, Tunisia, and Namibia, they managed to finish as group runners-up behind Les Étalons and qualify for the quarter-finals. Alas, their tournament ended in the last eight when they lost 3-0 to The Gambia, but it is certainly a superb achievement for the team and shows great promise for the senior team in the near future. Perhaps that long and arduous wait for the Central African Republic’s debut appearance in a major tournament might be coming to an end soon…

Central African Republic National Team

Q. Who is CAR’s best player of all-time?

Arguably, the best-ever player in Central African football is the 35-year-old midfielder Foxi Kéthévoama who currently plays in Turkish football for the second-tier side Balıkesirspor. He is currently the country’s record appearance holder having earned 47 caps for Les Fauves since his international debut in 2002 as a 16-year-old.

Foxi Kéthévoama

Kéthévoama started his football career with Stade Centrafricaine, whom he was playing for when he made his international debut, before making the journey to European football in 2006 when he moved to Hungarian side Diósgyőri VTK. He spent a season with DVTK where he scored eight goals in 23 appearances for the side, before making a move to Újpest FC in 2007. Kéthévoama had a successful period of three years at the Lilák by making 73 appearances and scoring 13 goals throughout his time there, and was part of the side that finished as the 2007-08 Nemzeti Bajnokság II champions before becoming the Nemzeti Bajnokság I runners-up in the following season. He continued his time in Hungary when he moved to then top-flight side Kecskeméti TE in 2010, making a further 60 appearances and scoring 18 goals in his two seasons there. It was at KTE that Kéthévoama won his first major honour by winning the 2011 Magyar Kupa final, with him being the star of the show as he scored a hat-trick to give the club its first major trophy in its history, and becoming a club icon.

Kéthévoama’s six-year stay in Hungary came to an end in 2012 when he moved to Kazakh giants Astana initially on loan, but moving permanently in the following year. During his four years with the Blue and Yellows, he made nearly 150 appearances for the club and scored 34 goals. The 2014 season was especially successful for him as he scored 16 league goals in 25 league appearances on the way to winning that year’s league title and finishing as the league’s top goalscorer – an impressive feat for an attacking midfielder. During his time at UEFA’s eastern frontier, he won the 2014 and 2015 Kazakhstan Premier League titles (the first league titles the club had won), as well as the 2012 Kazakhstan Cup.

The attacking midfielder moved to his next country in 2015 when he first joined Gaziantep B.B. in the Turkish second-tier, but sadly found his game time limited by making just ten appearances for the club, but impressively scoring five goals during that season. Thankfully, he soon moved to his current club Balıkesirspor in time for the 2016-17 season, and has been at the club ever since competing in Turkey’s second tier. During his lengthy stay at Balkes, he has made over 130 appearances for the northwestern club and scored just 19 goals, and continues to be one of the most experienced members of the squad as they attempt to maintain their position in the TFF First League for next season. However, with the club rooted to the bottom of the table (at the time of writing), it looks like it’s going to be a tough season for Kéthévoama and his teammates.

In terms of the national team, Kéthévoama made just two appearances for Les Fauves between 2002 and 2009 before becoming an established member of the starting XI from 2010 onwards. As we have previously seen, he could be considered a player who steps up in the big games, and it’s certainly the case for some of his goals for the Wild Beasts. It would be him who would score a historic brace against Botswana in 2012 to give his country their first-ever World Cup qualifying victory in its history, and he would score a decisive goal against Egypt in the second leg of the 2013 AFCON first qualifying round tie to ensure the continental giants were shockingly knocked out by the minnows. During his time with the national team, Kéthévoama has scored eight goals, which puts him second in the all-time Central African top international goalscorers, with his last international goal coming in a friendly 2-0 win over Niger in October 2019.

Q. Who is currently the best player in the national team?

The best player in the current Central African national team is their captain, the 28-year-old defensive midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, who is considered one of the best defensive midfielders in European football.

Geoffrey Kondogbia

Born in the French town of Nemours, Kondogbia started his career with Lens, where he made his senior debut in November 2010 as a 17-year-old. His performances with the Sang et Or soon attracted attention, and he made a €3m move to southern Spain to play for Sevilla for the 2012-13 season. He played 33 times for the Andalusians before making a quick return to French football by joining the revolution that was occurring in Monaco by joining the Monégasques for a reported fee of €20m. During his two-year stay at the principality, he made 49 appearances helping them finish in the second position in Ligue 1 in his first season, before aiding them to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League the following season. Alas, his stay on the Mediterranean coast would also be a brief one, as in the summer of 2015, he moved to Inter Milan for an initial fee of €31m.

Despite making 50 appearances for the Nerazzurri, his stay in Italian football would also be a brief period of time, and was soon on the move again, this time returning to Spanish football and joining Valencia, initially on loan for the whole of the 2017-18 season, before the move was made permanent in summer 2018. During his three-year stay with Los Murciélagos, he made 82 appearances and scored six goals, becoming one of Valencia’s main defensive lynchpins in their midfield, and helping them win the 2018-19 Copa del Ray by playing in the final as a second-half substitute. As we have seen with his career, Kondogbia hasn’t stayed at clubs for too long as he soon moved to his current club, Atlético Madrid in November 2020, helping Atléti overcome the challenges of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and former club Sevilla to lift the 2020-21 La Liga trophy. Kondogbia made 25 appearances during the league campaign to ensure he would earn his first league winners medal in his career.

As mentioned previously, Kondogbia was born in France and spent most of his career playing various French national sides. He has played for France at all levels of the youth set-up, including being part of the famous U20 side that won the 2013 U20 World Cup, a side that included such well-known players like Paul Pogba, Samuel Umtiti, Kurt Zouma, and Lucas Digne. Kondogbia would contribute two goals throughout the tournament; one against Ghana in the opening group game, and one goal against Turkey in the Round of 16 match, and subsequently play in the final win against Uruguay. He later made his senior debut for France as a 20-year-old substitute in a friendly game against Belgium, and made another further four friendly appearances for Les Bleus.

However, despite making 57 appearances for France across all youth levels and earning five caps for the senior team, Kondogbia was still eligible for his parents’ country of Central African Republic because his senior appearances had not been competitive fixtures. After being overlooked for a call-up by France for three years, he switched his international allegiance in 2018 to CAR and made his international debut in the October of the same year in a 2019 AFCON qualifier against Côte d’Ivoire which formally confirmed him to the Central African Republic. Since his debut for the Wild Beasts, he has made eight appearances for the national team and scored one goal, although he was unable to play for the national team throughout their past World Cup qualifying campaign, with his last international appearance coming in the summer of 2021 in a friendly match against Rwanda.

Q. Who could be considered as the most exciting up & coming talent from the country?

There are a number of talented young Central African players that could be worth keeping an eye on in the next few years to see whether they fulfill their potential and become regular members of the national team. Here are some players to focus on:

Séverin Tatolna

• Toussaint Gombe-Fei – 20-year-old striker currently playing for Czech second-tier side MFK Vyškov. He played for the under 20s national team during the 2021 U20 AFCON tournament where he played in all four tournaments games and scored a goal against Tunisia. He made his international debut in March 2021 in an AFCON qualifier against Mauritania, and is his only senior international appearance so far.
• Isaac Ngoma – 19-year-old attacking midfielder or winger who is currently playing for AS Tempête Mocaf. Another player who starred in the 2021 U20 AFCON side, where he scored during the group stage of the competition against Burkina Faso, he made his full senior debut in June 2021 as an 18-year-old against Cabo Verde in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, and scored his first senior international goal in the reverse fixture in November. He currently has five caps with two goals, with Ngoma having scored the only goals for CAR in the past two senior internationals.
• Flory Yangao – 20-year-old right back who currently applies his trade with Olympic Real de Bangui. Yet another player of the U20 AFCON side, who played in all four tournament games, he made his senior international debut in March 2021 in the AFCON qualifier against Burundi. Since his debut, he has been ever present in the side having played in all the senior international games played in 2021 resulting in Yangao picking up ten caps by the end of the year. The country’s number one right-back!
• Séverin Tatolna – 20-year-old forward currently with Swedish side Skellefteå FF in the country’s fourth tier. The player has yet to earn himself a senior international cap for the Wild Beasts but has been an unused substitute in November’s internationals.

Q. What is the current state/performance of the Central African national team?

The results of the Central African national team in 2021:

• 26th Mar [2021 AFCONQ]: Burundi (a) 2-2
• 30th Mar [2021 AFCONQ]: Mauritania (h) 0-1
• 4th June [Friendly]: Rwanda (a) 0-2
• 7th June [Friendly]: Rwanda (a) 0-5
• 1st Sept [2022 WCQ]: Cabo Verde (n) 1-1
• 6th Sept [2022 WCQ]: Liberia (n) 0-1
• 7th Oct [2022 WCQ]: Nigeria (a) 1-0
• 10th Oct [2022 WCQ]: Nigeria (n) 0-2
• 13th Nov [2022 WCQ]: Cabo Verde (a) 1-2
• 16th Nov [2022 WCQ]: Liberia (n) 1-3

Looking at the results above, the Central African Republic’s results don’t look for good reading considering they had won only once throughout the whole of 2021. However, that away victory over Nigeria in early October can be considered as one of the country’s greatest ever results (which will be further explained in the next question), and will no doubt give a huge boost to the country’s football landscape. They also managed to achieve an impressive away draw away at Burundi, albeit letting a 2-0 lead slip which could have resulted in a better scoreline.

Raoul Savoy

However, it could be considered that the year is a transitional one with a change of management halfway through the year. Ivorian coach François Zahoui was in charge for the first eight months of the year, but was ultimately replaced with Swiss-Spanish coach Raoul Savoy who would be making his third stint as Central African manager, and was Zahoui’s predecessor. Certainly, under the management of Savoy, the results and performances seemed to have improved throughout the World Cup qualifiers, even if it didn’t stop them from finishing bottom of the qualifying group and finishing below the lowest-ranked team of Liberia, with their away defeat to the Lone Stars arguably being their worst performance in the World Cup qualifiers. However, there are some shoots of optimism for Savoy going into 2022 and beyond, especially considering they were unable to play any of their scheduled ‘home’ games within the country, with the goals of young winger Isaac Ngoma creating some hope for the future.

• FIFA’s Highlights of Liberia vs. Central African Republic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8InjW3Xruk

Q. Looking at CAR’s international history, what has been the best game, result, or performance for the representative team?

One of the Central African Republic’s best results in recent times was the surprising and shocking 1-0 away victory at Nigeria in October 2021 during the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign. Despite the Super Eagles having a collection of stars such as Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Moses Simon in their starting eleven, a lackluster performance meant they were dispatched by a 90th-minute winner from substitute forward Karl Namnganda to give Les Fauves, ranked 124th in the FIFA World Rankings at the time, a memorable victory in Lagos. It was the first time that Nigeria had lost at home in the qualifying stages in nearly 40 years, with their last qualifying defeat coming in October 1981, when they lost 2-0 to Algeria in Lagos. It would also be Central African Republic’s second-ever victory in the history of their World Cup qualifiers, and their first away victory, which made the win all the sweeter.

• FIFA’s Highlights of Nigeria vs. Central African Republic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6iHhbhOuFk

The victory would be CAR’s first away victory in a competitive fixture since 2012, when they achieved another surprise by beating Egypt 3-2 in the first leg of the First Round of 2013 AFCON qualifying. A brace from forward Hilaire Momi, and the crucial third goal from winger David Manga gave the Wild Beasts a famous victory in Alexandria. This would be followed up by a 1-1 draw in Bangui in the second leg, with midfielder Foxi Kéthévoama scoring the opening goal in the score-draw, to knock the Pharaohs out of qualifying by winning 4-3 on aggregate – roughly two years after the Egyptians had clinched their seventh African title.

Sadly, despite knocking out one of the giants of African football during the qualification phase, CAR was unable to qualify for their first AFCON tournament. They won their first leg against Burkina Faso with midfielder Vianney Mabidé scoring the game’s only goal, giving CAR an advantage for the away leg. It was looking like qualification for the 2013 AFCON was looking very likely when David Manga opened the scoring in the second leg after just seven minutes to give CAR a 2-0 aggregate lead, but two first-half goals from the hosts leveled the aggregate scores at Ouagadougou. Just as it looked like the visitors would just about progress to their first-ever major tournament on away goals, a 96th-minute winner from Les Étalons confirmed their place in the Africa Cup of Nations instead of Central African Republic – heartbreaking! Especially considering that Burkina Faso would subsequently reach the final of the 2013 AFCON.

Q. What is your favourite shirt from the Central African national team?

Sadly, the Central African Republic national team hasn’t had that many iconic shirts throughout its history in my opinion, but the one shirt that stood out for me (from the shirts that I could find from my research) is the Macron-made home shirt that they wore in 2019. An all-blue, simply designed shirt with a V-neck collar, complete with coloured stripes that have been taken from the national flag, situated both above and below the badge. Further images of the shirt can be found at Football Shirt World here:

http://www.footballshirtworld.co.uk/blog/uncategorized/central-african-republic-4/

Central African Domestic Football

Q. What is the Central African football pyramid like?

At the time of writing, the Central African football pyramid has at least two levels:

• Tier 1 – Division 1
• Tier 2 – Division 2

The top tier league in the Central African football pyramid is the Central African Republic League Division 1 which was first founded in 1968, and was also known as the Championnat de la Ligue de Bangui previously. Currently, there are 12 teams who compete in Division 1 and they play each other home and away to produce a 22-game league campaign that starts in September and concludes in March/April the following year. The Central African champions then qualify for the following season’s CAF Champions League, where the champions enter the continental competition at the first qualifying round.

Normally the bottom two teams in Division 1 are automatically relegated to the 16-team Division 2 and are replaced by the winners and runners-up of the national second tier.

The main national cup competition is the Central African Republic Coupe Nationale, and its first final was held in 1974 with its first winner being AS Tempête Mocaf. The winner of the Coupe Nationale can qualify for the following season’s CAF Confederation Cup (Africa’s secondary continental club competition), and enter at the first qualifying round, but Central African clubs have not entered a team into the African club football’s secondary tournament since the 2018-19 edition.

Q. Which Central African teams are historically the most successful?

These are the number of titles each Central African club has won (that is known in the records) since the first season was held in 1968:

• 12 titles: Olympic Real de Bangui/Réal Olympique Castel, AS Tempête Mocaf
• 5 titles: Anges de Fatima/ASDR Fatima, Stade Centrafricain
• 4 titles: DFC 8
• 2 titles: FACA, Publique Sportive Mouara, USCA
• 1 title: US Cattin

Historically, there are two clubs who have been the most successful in Central African football and have won twelve Division 1 titles each – the Bangui-based clubs of Olympic Real de Bangui and AS Tempête Mocaf.

Founded in 1945, and originally known as Réal Olympique Castel, Olympic Real de Bangui won its first league title in 1971, and won a further three titles within the 1970s before achieving their fifth in 1982. It would be a wait of eighteen years before they could claim their sixth title by winning the first Division 1 of the new millennium in 2000. They successfully defended their title the following year before adding another championship in 2004. Since 2010, Olympique has added a further four titles to their name, with their most recent league triumph coming in the 2016-17 season.

Association Sportive Tempête Mocaf was founded in 1940, with the ‘Tempête‘ part of the name coming from the French for ‘storm‘. Les Rouges-Noirs won their first league title in 1976 before doubling their league tally in 1984. However, the majority of their championship haul came during the 1990s when they claimed six league trophies during the decade of Central African football. Since the turn of the millennium, championship victories have been more sparse with the club adding a further four national titles since 2000. Le Pays‘ most recent championship, and their record-equalling twelfth trophy, came as recently as the 2018-19 season.

Below is the list of Central African teams who have won the Coupe Nationale more than once since the first final was held in 1974:

• 11 cups: Anges de Fatima/ASDR Fatima
• 7 cups: AS Tempête Mocaf
• 5 cups: USCA
• 3 cups: Stade Centrafricain
• 2 cups: FACA, Olympic Real de Bangui/Réal Olympique Castel, Sodiam Sports

The most successful team in the Coupe Nationale’s history is Les Anges de Fatima. Founded in 1952, and formally known as Association Sportive Diables Rouges de Fatima, they won their first national cup in 1980, and then successfully defended it the next year. They added three cups to their Coupe tally in the 1990s, before adding a further two in the 2000s when they clinched back-to-back cups in 2008 and 2009 by beating Stade Centrafricain on both occasions. They improved on that performance between 2016 and 2018 when they won three consecutive national cup finals by beating Sica Sport in their first final, and Olympic Real in the following two finals, all by the scoreline of 1-0. Their last cup victory was the third final of that successful trio of national cups back in 2018.

The second-most successful team in terms of Coupe wins is unsurprisingly the team of AS Tempête Mocaf, who have claimed seven national cup victories. Les Rouges-Noirs won the very first Coupe Nationale in 1974 and have clinched at least one national cup in every decade since. Their most recent cup victory came in the 2020 final when they beat DFC8 4-3 on penalties after drawing 1-1 during regulation time. The most recent ‘new’ name to have won the Coupe Nationale is Castel Foot, who beat Olympic Real 2-1 in the 2021 final to win their first major trophy in their history.

Sadly, Central African clubs have not been successful in the continental club competitions with the country’s league being considered as one of the lowest-ranked leagues in Africa. Throughout the whole history of the CAF Champions League, Central African clubs have only reached the second round of the competition on three occasions – Olympic Real in 1974, Stade Centrafricain in 1986, and AS Tempête Mocaf in 1994. Most recently, a lot of Central African clubs have either withdrawn from the competition or failed to take up their allocated berth, which has furthered hampered the league’s development, although clubs have started to compete in the major African club competition most recently. The last time a club from Division 1 won their CCL two-legged tie was in 2012 when DFC8 beat Cameroonian side Astres FC on away goals after drawing 2-2 in the preliminary round of the qualifying phase of the tournament, although they would exit in the next round of qualifying to Sudanese side Al-Hilal by a losing aggregate scoreline of 8-1.

Q. Who are currently the best teams in the country?

The 2020-21 Central African Division 1 table.
[IMAGE: http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/cafr2021.html]

For the 2020-21 season, the league temporarily had twenty teams divided into two groups of ten teams, with each team playing every other team in their group twice to produce an 18-game league campaign. The bottom four teams of both groups were relegated to the second tier in order to reduce the top flight back to twelve teams for the following season, whilst the two group winners faced each other in a two-legged championship playoff.

In Group A, the clear winners were Red Star who won sixteen of their eighteen league games and drew the remainder to complete an unbeaten league campaign to finish ten points clear of second-placed side Stade Centrafricaine. In Group B, it was a much closer affair with three teams in contention to claim the group victory, however, it was Diplomates Football Club du 8ème Arrondissement (commonly known as DFC8) that clinched the group win. They finished a point ahead of runners-up Olympic Real and two points ahead of third-placed side Association Sportive des Postes Telecommunications (ASOPT). In the resulting championship playoff, the first leg ended with a 1-1 draw, with the second leg then finishing as a goalless draw. With away goals not counting for this playoff, a third game was required and it was DFC8 who clinched the title by winning 1-0 in the deciding match.

The 2021-22 Division 1 table at the time of writing.
[IMAGE: http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/cafr2022.html]

At the time of writing, Red Star is currently leading the Central African Division 1 table at roughly the halfway point of the season, just ahead of Olympic Real, Stade Centrafricaine, and defending champions DFC8. Whilst the Coupe Nationale winners for 2021 are Castel Foot, who claimed their first trophy by beating Olympic Real 2-1 in the final held just in December.

Useful Links

The links for the Fédération Centrafricaine de Football official social media channels can be found below:

• Website: n/a
• Facebook: n/a
• Twitter: n/a
• YouTube: n/a
• Instagram: n/a

In addition, there are a number of other African football websites or social media accounts that report on Central African football. They can be found below:

• African Insider Twitter: @African_Insider
• African Ftbl Twitter: @AfricanFtbl
• AfricanFootball.com Twitter: @AfrFootball
• AfricanFootball.com Website: https://africanfootball.com/

So that completes the look at the Central African national team and its domestic league. If you have any comments, suggestions, reactions, or even your own answers to the above questions, please write them in the comments box below. Likewise, you can either email us at the94thmin@gmail.com, or send a message at @The94thMin on Twitter.

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