Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles Wins First Ever African Cup

31 Jul 2016Steven Ellis»

Tunisian club Carthage Eagles are the first ever champions at the African Ice Hockey Cup, which took place in Morocco over the past week.

In a very closely contested final game, the Carthage Eagles are the very first champions of the African Ice Hockey Cup following an 8-7 victory over the Rabat Capitals from Morocco.

The Eagles, featuring many players from Tunisia's national team that participated in exhibition action back in 2014, had no issues throughout the tournament, defeating Egypt's Cairo Anabus 19-0 on the opening day. The team followed it up with an 11-6 victory over Algiers Corsaires from Algeria before defeating the Morocco Mallers 11-8.

That set the pace for the final game, which saw the only two unbeaten teams battling it out for gold. In the end, Carthage would score the extra goal needed to take the victory, finishing off the tournament with a perfect record for Tunisia's first championship in an international competition, whether it be with the national team or a club team, at the men's level.

The tournament was the first ever African Ice Hockey Cup, a tournament designed to help teams in Africa that have very little chances to play. Organized by the Royal Moroccan Ice Hockey Federation, it was a historic tournament on many levels. Of course, Tunisia had their first form of hockey success, but it was also the debut of Egypt at a tournament of this nature. The team failed to take a victory, but they did lose by a close margin of 2-1 in their final game against the Casablanca Bears.

For Algeria and the Moroccan clubs, it was the first time that many of the players had played in an international tournament since the 2008 Arab Cup, the first, and only version of the tournament.

Ice hockey in Africa is slowly developing, with South Africa being the only team participating in international play. Morocco is currently an IIHF member, while Namibia, who did not take part in the tournament, participates in inline hockey. The hope is to see this tournament grow in the coming years and allow teams in Africa the ability to grow, similar to how the Challenge Cup of Asia has had a positive impact on hockey in the continent.