The 13th edition of the Addis Ababa City Cup is set to start with the opening match between Defense FC and Electric on Saturday, October 6, 2018, in Addis Ababa stadium. Three of the city-based teams, four regional and one from abroad are grouped to faceoff in the national stadium in the coming weeks.
The Addis Ababa City Cup organizers committee officially announced on Thursday that eight different clubs are in the draw. Following the draw, the recent Ethiopian Cup champion Defense will face Electric in the opening match while Adama city take on Ethiopia Coffee.
With a good pre-season form, Defense is tipped to win against the relegated Electric. Securing a spot to the CAF Confederation cup by beating St. George in a penalty shootout, Defense under the new Coach, Seyoum Kebede seems to be in a good form this year.
In another city cup fixture, Ethiopia Coffee will host Adama City in the second round of today’s matches.
Ethiopia Coffee, Defense, Electric and Adama City have been drawn under Group A while Fasil City, Woliata Dicha, Jimma Aba Jiffar and Bahir Dar City are grouped in Group B. The 12th edition City Cup winner St. George rejected the invitation to participate in the tournament since its nine players were recruited for the Ethiopia national team in view of the upcoming AFCON qualifier match against Kenya.
Unprecedentedly, the City Cup committee has invited a Nigerian based club, Kwara United to the competition. However, last minute decision by the Nigerian side excluded the only club from abroad from taking part in the competition.
Kwara United is a club which plays in the Nigerian Premier League after its promotion in 2017 to the Nigerian National League. They were the 2006 regular season champions, 3rd in super four play-offs. Kwara has also achieved appearances in the CAF Confederation Cup 2007 group stages. In place of Kwara United the organizers of the city cup tournament has decided to include Bahir Dar City filling the one spot left in Group B.
The competition is scheduled to be held from October 6-21, 2018. Regarding this, the committee unveiled improvements that will enable stadium incomes to be shared among the participating clubs. According to the Addis Ababa Football Federation (AAFF) President, Haileyesus Fisaha (Eng.) the winner will have a chance to share in the income of the competition. Hence, the income share will run depending on points collected; which is 15 percent the champion, 10 percent for the runner-up, 7 percent for third place winner and 4 percent to the fourth.
Furthermore, the organizers have set-up nine CCTV cameras in different directions to control football hooliganism in the stadium.
