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The Draw is Complete: 2008/2009 Tunisian League Calendar Revealed

July 15th, 2008 | By: Rami | 12 Comments »

draw Today the draw for the Tunisian Domestic League was completed at Abou Nawas Tunis. One look at the first day will see your jaw drop. Don’t scroll down quite yet. Guess who’s playing each other? Hint, it’s something like a derby. Two of them to be precise. Ok, it’s not EST vs. CA. Still didn’t get it?

Alright, the first day we will have none other than the two main championship contenders from last year that finished just two points apart: Club Africain vs. Etoile du Sahel in Sousse. Woa. As if that wasn’t enough, we have another classic with Esperance Sportive de Tunis lining up against the Club Sportif Sfaxien in Rades. Talk about getting things off on the right foot! On a personal level I’m actually kind of worried, Club Africain didn’t look so convincing against Djoliba (try not convincing at all actually) whereas ESS looked ready to start their season after that 2-0 win against Esperance.

Don’t get me wrong, Etoile still has work to do since they are going to lose some regulars before the season starts. I just get a sense that they are further along with their preparations than CA is. Plus they will be at home and they already have plenty of pent up motivation from the manner in which the season ended. As for the EST-CSS clash, it’s going to be very interesting to say the least. The team from the capital doesn’t want to fall behind like they did and the team from the Southern capital has some honor and respect they need to win back after finishing in an unthinkable 10th place.

By the way, you see how September is virtually empty? It’s not an accident. The holy month of Ramadan falls during that time and this year the FTF decided to suspend activity for the first time. What do you think of this? Does it make any sense? I’m split, on one hand its nice for the players to not have to put that strain on their body during a difficult part of the year for athletes but on the other it’s going to hurt their rhythm and might adversely affect team chemistry once things pick up again. You know what else falls during Ramadan? That pivotal match against Burkina Faso is on September 6th. I wonder if the players will be fasting…

Finally, like this past season, the final day sees EST and ESS clash.

Anything else stick out to you?

Sunday, August 10, 2008:

EST-CSS / CSHL-USMo / ESS-CA / ASM-CAB / EGSG-ESHS / OB-ASK / ST-JS

Sunday, August 24, 2008:

ST-ASM / CSS-CSHL / CAB-ESS / ESHS-EST / CA-OB / JS-EGSG / ASK-USMo

Saturday, August 30, 2008:

CSS-ASK / ESS-ASM / CSHL-ESHS / OB-CAB / EST-JS / USMo-CA / ASM-ST

Sunday, September 28, 2008:

EGSG-ESS / ESHS-CSS / ASM-OB / JS-CSHL /CAB-USMo / ST-EST / CA-ASK

Sunday, October 19, 2008:

ESHS-CA / OB-ESS / CSS-JS / USMo-ASM / CSHL-ST / ASK-CAB / EST-EGSG

Sunday, October 26, 2008:

EST-OB / JS-ESHS / ESS-USMo / ST-CSS / ASM-ASK / EGSG-CSHL / CAB-CA

Sunday, November 2, 2008:

JS-CAB / USMo-OB / ESHS-ST / ASK-ESS / CSS-EGSG / CA-ASM / CSHL-EST

Sunday, November 9, 2008:

CSHL-CAB / ASM-CSS / ESS-ESHS / OB-JS / ST-USMo / EGSG-ASK / EST-CA

Sunday, November 16, 2008:

CA-CSHL / CAB-CSS / ASM-ESHS / ESS-JS / OB-ST / USMo-EGSG / ASK-EST

Sunday, November 20, 2008:

ESHS-CAB / CSHL-ASK / CSS-CA / ST-ESS / EGSG-OB / JS-ASM / EST-USMo

Sunday, December 7, 2008:

ASM-CSHL / ESS-CSS / OB-ESHS / USMo-JS / ASK-ST / CA-EGSG / CAB-EST

Sunday, December 14, 2008:

EGSG-CAB / CSHL-ESS / EST-ASM / CSS-OB / ESHS-USMo / JS-ASK / ST-CA

Sunday, December 21, 2008:

CAB-ST / OB-CSHL / ASM-EGSG / USMo-CSS / ESS-EST / ASK-ESHS / CA-JS

Here’s to a great season! I’d like to see more teams fighting over the title this year. It’s kind of weird that we barely finished one season and are starting off on another one right away. It sucks for the players who haven’t gotten much rest but as fans it’s hard to complain about our favorite teams coming back into our lives!

Tags: Club Africain, Club Sportif Sfaxien, Esperance de Tunis, Etoile Sportive du Sahel, Group H, Tunisian League 2008/2009

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Comments

By Achraf | July 15th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Wow!!!!!! Very exciting first week. I love the match up ESS- CA, its like here in America, the 2 that were the best play each other in the first game. I also noticed CAB having an easy schedule in the begining except for the match against ESS. I see CAB could win the 4 of the first 5 games. Hopfully they will do well and be title contenders. I like the idea about suspending activity for September, that way the players and the coachs will not be fighting with each other about fasting. It is good for the players and the fans. I am hoping the national team does not fast for the Burkina Faso game, It is huge, and the players need their full energy. MUST WIN GAME!

Posted from United States

By Rachid | July 15th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

In a sportsmanship kind of way let me say that justice will be done during the first week in Sousse! I think preparations wise, l’Etoile is already ahead been ahead of CA, as you stated. If, God forbid (and I really mean that), CA gets eliminated from the CAF Cup, then their situation will get even worse. On the positive side (for you) is that CA play their best against l’Etoile and I’m sure they’d do everything they can to convince everyone they deserve their title. It’s going be a good start! May the best teams win!

By Yassine | July 15th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

I can’t wait for the new season. It will start with L’Etoile’s revenge and end with the usual win over Espérance. But everything is ruined when I read this: http://www.infosfoot.net/fr/articles/article.php?id_article=228
Let’s hope that ‘Errabta’ will find a way to let people enjoy the first match of the season.
It’s a good thing that FTF cleared September for Ramadan as most of the players fast.

By Houssem | July 16th, 2008 at 4:20 am

This draw could hardly be more exciting ! Let’s hope for an entertaining, bust mostly safe season, “men ghir fdhaya7″. Last season was pretty shameful in terms of fair play, organization, violence repression, etc.

Posted from Germany

By Rami | July 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Welcome Houssem You’re right, I hope this year we see more fair play, better organization, and little to no violence. It might be wishful thinking but there’s definitely things that can be done to improve the situation.

Achraf, it is going to be an interesting season for CAB. I know they are capable of playing good football but they have had a mixture of bad luck and poor leadership. I want to get to watch Hamza Baghouli this year as I only saw him once before and didn’t emerge convinced of his abilities. I’ve heard great things, I just want to see them in something other than highlights.

Rachid, some friendly “trash talking” is always welcome man Thanks for supporting CA in the Confed cup too! I hope to see a great match with the fans present! This huit clos crap is really annoying because it takes away the whole atmosphere and you can see it has a terrible effect on players who don’t play as hard when fans aren’t present. I think since the problems with the EST and ESS fans happened in a cup match, then they should have their first cup match without fans if it comes to that. Depriving supporters form seeing such classic matchups as ESS vs. CA and EST vs. CSS is couterproductive and also loses a lot of money for the League and the teams involved. They need to think of new punishments. Obviously these aren’t even effective though since we keep seeing violence and projectiles thrown onto the field of play.

Achraf, I don’t want them to fast that day either for the Burkina Faso game. Then again, Chikhaoui had his best time in Zurich during the month of Ramadan. It was crazy how good he was playing. There was a report about it on Swiss TV. It was in German so I didn’t understand much but they would give him transfusions before matches so that he would be hydrated. Something we should look into for our players who a practicing Muslims.

Yassine, I like your confidence. Totally behind your team as usual. Based on current form you’re right but we’ll know more after we see how CA performs in Djoliba “retour.” Congrats to ESS fans for their win in the Moroccan Summer Cup. I hope you guys take it.

Posted from United States

By Abdullah | July 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

Rami, i think de-hydration is the biggest problem in ramadan.. i used to play football a while back and the not eating part isn’t so hard to be honest.

Posted from Netherlands

By Achraf | July 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Hey everyone, according to mosaique fm, The match Tunisia vs Angola on August 20, will be played at Stade Mustapha Ben Jannet in Monastir (Capacity = 20,000). Looks like Humberto Coelho is taking his words already by playing in different cities in Tunisia, But I think that his first game should have been played in Tunis. i still like the idea though. There are other good stadiums in Tunisia (Soussa, Bizerte, Sfax, Monastir etc.)

Posted from United States

By Moni | July 16th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

New stadium of sfax ??????????

http://nsa01.casimages.com/img/2008/03/19/0803190924432676619.jpg

http://imgs.imagup.com/02/06/1179430263_Nouveau%20Stade%20sfax.jpg

Posted from Netherlands

By Achraf | July 16th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Thanks for the links moni, We need more those kinds of stadiums in Tunisia in order to make it better for the national team to play in different cities in Tunisia and would also improve our world cup bids for the future. the one we bidded for (world cup 2010 with libya) Failed.

Posted from United States

By Rami | July 16th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

Achraf, thanks for the heads up homie! Been away from the the computer more than usual today (work outside the office) so I’m kind of catching up on the happenings in the world of Tunisian football. Coelho appears to be doing all the right things right now. Hopefully it reflects later on in the results and team performances.

Thanks for the links Moni. That stadium would be awesome. I think Sfax will get one before Sousse does. Thats the rumor I heard at least. As Achraf said, if we want to have a realistic chance of hosting a world cup one day we need to improve our facilities a lot. They’re some of the best on the continent but they still have a ways to go. Alone I don’t think we can do it but maybe if Lybia or Algeria stepped their game up we could do it with them. There would be worries about security and stuff but I know that at least in Tunisia we would have things on lock. It’s our neighbors that I would worry about more on that point…

Working on an article a little later tonight and will post either tonight or tomorrow. Keep the opinions coming guys, I love hearing them

By Wahib | July 18th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

I hope the Tunisian confederation of football will manage to put the right schedule this year for all the teams involved in the African and Arab tournaments so we won’t see again what happen in the last season with all the non sense timing of the games (2 games per week) which probably costs the ESS to fall in the end of the 2008 season!

Posted from Canada

By Rami | July 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am

You’re right Wahib, the African competitions make things a lot more complicated. One thing about this year is that we are sure not to have someone in the Club World Cup. I’d rather we had a representative there but it can’t be denied that stopping the league for almost a month made things more difficult. Hopefully they learned their lessons and our players can actually get some rest at the end of the season.

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