SA coach Fadlu Davids has set his sights on the CAF Champions League title with Tanzanian club Simba SC as they begin their continental inter-club competition on Saturday in Botswana.
Simba are set to travel to Botswana in Francistown to face Gaborone United in the first preliminary round. The CAF Champions League first tie will be played at the Obert Itani Chilume Stadium, with Davids looking for a win.
The 22-time Tanzania Premier League champions reached the final of the Confederation Cup last season. But the former Orlando Pirates mentor and his charges lost to Moroccan side RS Berkane.
Ahead of the Community Shield clash against arch-rivals Yanga SC at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Tuesday, the coach made it clear that his primary ambition is to win the biggest club football competition on the African continent: the Champions League. However, his team, Simba, suffered a 1-0 defeat, allowing Yanga SC to retain the Community Shield trophy.
FADLU DAVIDS REVEAL HIS CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AMBITIONS
“This is the ambition of a club like Simba. We can’t be happy with just getting to a CAF Confederation Cup final. We have to win the Confederation Cup final,” Davids told Journalists.
“This season we are in the Champions League. I want the best possible squad to be able to not only participate in the Champions League. I want to win the Champions League. Yes, it can happen this year, it can happen next year.”
“But 100 per cent Simba will win the Champions League within the next few years, that’s for sure. We have the ambition, we have a president [Mohammed Dewji] that has put out that goal for us as a technical, a club or a board to be able to say we are a huge club and let’s have that ambition,” added Davids.
“If we’re just happy with taking part in the Champions League and getting to the quarter-final, no. We need to have bigger ambitions, and I am an ambitious coach.”
RELATED STORY: ‘It’s a season of success’ – Fadlu Davids’ bold promise to Simba