Orange FA Cup Final… Mighty Blackpool To Battle East End Lions In Bo

By Bockarie Allieu

232news – The Orange FA Cup will come to an end tomorrow at the Southern Arena stadium in Bo. In the final match, Mighty Blackpool FC will host the Leone Rock premier league defending champions East End Lions FC.

Both clubs based in Freetown are prepared to travel with thousands of their fans to the Bo city for full support.

Both teams departed to Bo few days ahead of the final match to acclimatize with the weather and to train on the pitch.

Before departing to Bo, both clubs unveiled their jerseys which their fans will be using on that day to give full support.

In their last meeting, Lions defeated Blackpool in the Leone Rock premier league match. But the above match according to football analyst is a different match for the two traditional archrivals as the winner of the final match will represent Sierra Leone in the CAF Club competitions.

Both clubs have on several occasions represented Sierra Leone in the CAF Club competitions with Blackpool setting a record of reaching the quarter-final stage in the CAF Club Champions league competition that is yet to be broken by any club in Sierra Leone.

East End Lions went as far as the final stage of the WAFU Club competition but lost the final match.

In their records, Blackpool have made six appearances in the African Cup of Champions clubs /CAF Champions League.

In 1979 Blackpool lost to Hearts of Oak, Ghana 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw. In 1980, Blackpool lost to ASF Police, Senegal. Blackpool made their best run in the CAF Club champions league by reaching the quarter-final stage in 1989. On the way to the quarter-final stage, Blackpool defeated ES Setif, Algeria 5-3 on penalty kicks after a goalless draw in Algeria and a 1-1 draw at home.

In the second round, Blackpool beat Djoliba AC, Mali 2-1 aggregate. Blackpool lost 4-1 to Tonnerre Yaounde, Cameroon in the quarter-final match. In 1989 they defeated Oilers FC, Liberia in the preliminary stage but lost to Canon Yaounde, Cameroon in the first round. They have made 2 appearances in CAF Confederation Cup and 3 appearances in the CAF Cup Winners’ Cup competition.

East End Lions FC have appeared 7 times in CAF Champions league with other CAF competitions. Their most recent appearance was in the 2025/26 season against US Monastir, Tunisia. In the first leg they lost 4-0 and in the return leg, they lost 3-1 at home in Tunisia.

They have appeared in four previous champions league campaign before the above competition. They have 1 appearance each in the CAF Confederation Cup, CAF Cup Winners Cup and the CAF Cup.

In 1996, they reached the final stage of the WAFU Club Championship and lost to ASFAN Naimey, Niger 4-3 at full time.

In the above match, Lions won 3-0 at home and lost 4-0 in Niger. Both clubs in their motivation talk promised the players a huge amount of money should they win the final match tomorrow. Blackpool executive has said they will give the prize money in the trophy Le150, 000 to the players plus another huge amount coming from individual executive members. Lions executive has promised to give their players Le300,000 to the players if they win tomorrow.