Excellence Cup: Botola D2 clubs create a surprise

From its very first day, Tuesday, the Excellence Cup was marked by a series of surprising results. The clubs of the Botola Pro Inwi D2who for the first time have the opportunity to face their counterparts from D1 throughout the season, have bared their teeth.

This first day offered several derbies, starting with the duel between theAS FAR at theUS Yaâcoub El Mansour. USYM finally won with a score of 2 to 1, taking advantage of the numerous defensive errors of the Military. At the end of another derby, theOlympic Dcheira took over the Hassania of Agadirwhich lost 2-0. The Coffeeb de Marrakechhe went to dictate his law on the lawn of another member of the first division: the Youth of Soualem (2-1). The Mughreb of Tetouan almost joined the list of D1 clubs beaten on Tuesday, but the Northerners finally snatched a draw againstKhouribga Olympic (2-2). On the other hand, the Berkane Renaissance did not tremble, she who inflicted a correction on the Wydad of Fez (4-0), as well as the Wydad who held his own against the Youth of El Massira (2-0).

Open to Botola Pro D1 and D2 clubs, the Excellence Cup aims to integrate players under 23 into the first team squads as well as supervise talented players who may be called up to the national Olympic and youth teams. This competition also aims to increase the annual number of matches and maintain the pace of competition during periods of suspension of the Trapdoor. Bringing together 32 clubs (D1 and D2), the Excellence Cup will be played in two rounds. During the first round, the clubs divided into eight groups of four teams according to a distribution in accordance with the ranking of the sports season (n-1) and a replacement of the relegated D2 clubs by the newly promoted clubs, will play two-way matches. The teams ranked first and second in each group will qualify for the next round, which will play the 1/8th, 1/4 and 1/2 finals in two-way matches. The classification match and the final will follow. Regarding the ages of the players, the clubs are required to register at least 10 U23 players on the match sheet and to guarantee mandatory participation of at least 6 U23 players throughout the duration of the match.