The kick-off of the Coupe d’excellence (CE), an official competition organized under the auspices of the National Professional Football League (LNFP), is scheduled for this Tuesday.
Open to Botola Pro D1 and D2 clubs, the EC aims, among other things, to integrate players (U23) into the first team squad as well as supervise talented players likely to be called up to the national Olympic and youth teams.
This competition also facilitates a gradual recovery after the summer and winter breaks and during FIFA dates, the increase in the annual number of matches and the maintenance of the competition rhythm during the Botola break periods.
Bringing together 32 clubs (D1 and D2), the Excellence Cup will be played in two rounds.
In the first round (group stage), the clubs, divided into eight groups of four teams according to a distribution in accordance with the ranking of the sporting season (n-1) and a replacement of the relegated D2 clubs by the newly promoted clubs, will play two-way matches.
The teams ranked 1st and 2nd in each group will qualify for the 2nd round (final phase), which will play the 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 finals in a two-way match. The classification match and the final will follow. Regarding the ages of the players, clubs are required to register at least 10 players (U23) on the match sheet and a mandatory participation of at least 06 players (U23) throughout the duration of the match.
In the event of a suspension of an U23 player during a match, the quota of U23 players must respect the same principle by imputing the number of players sent off.
The programming of this competition will take place mainly during the periods when the Botola Pro is closed.
Unless there is an exceptional exemption from the LNFP and according to its free assessment of the circumstances, clubs are obliged to align the technical staff of their “Senior” team.
