{"id":14495,"date":"2025-11-04T10:15:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/zambian-football-legend-hails-rising-competitiveness-of-african-club-football\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:04","slug":"zambian-football-legend-hails-rising-competitiveness-of-african-club-football","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zambian-football-legend-hails-rising-competitiveness-of-african-club-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambian football legend hails rising competitiveness of African Club Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zambian football legend and 2012 African champion Christopher Katongo has praised the increasing unpredictability and competitiveness of African club football following Monday\u2019s TotalEnergies Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup group stage draws in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Katongo, who assisted in the official draw alongside Cameroonian icon Alexandre Song, described this season\u2019s continental competitions as among the most fiercely contested in recent memory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He singled out Group C of the CAF Champions League, which features Mamelodi Sundowns, Al Hilal, MC Alger, and FC Saint-\u00c9loi Lupopo, calling it one of the toughest groups.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis group brings together multiple former champions and in-form sides. It\u2019s a clear example of how African club football has evolved, making matches harder to predict and more exciting for fans, not just across the continent but globally,\u201d Katongo said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The former Chipolopolo captain, who represented Zambia at numerous major tournaments, highlighted that the evolution of African club football has raised the stakes, creating more competitive and entertaining contests for supporters and observers alike.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14496,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-14495","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Zambian football legend has praised the increasing unpredictability and competitiveness of African club football","published_date":"2025-11-04 12:13:51","news_description":"Zambian football legend has praised the increasing unpredictability and competitiveness of African club football","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19129,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14495\/revisions\/19129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}