IT TOOK almost a quarter of a century but finally the two best teams in Africa are to meet in the final of the continent’s best football club championship: the Champions League.

Egypt’s powerhouse duo, Ahly and Zamalek, are to battle it out tomorrow in Cairo for the right to be called Africa’s top team in a tournament that began in 1964 but did a major make-over in 1997.

It’s an intriguing match-up that pits Ahly, which have won a record eight Champions League trophies, against Zamalek who are second in the all-time collection of this crown, with five.

Making the encounter especially mouth-watering is that the winner earns a berth for the FIFA Club World Cup and also faces the winner of the Confederation Cup in the following season’s Super Cup.

With a purse of $1 million on offer to the winners and $750,000 to the losing finalist, the Champions League is also the richest club competition in Africa.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 November, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly