African Champions’ Cup 1971
First Round
Abaluhya United Ken Great Olympics Gha 0-0 1-3 1-3x
Al-Merreikh Sud Tele SC Asmara Eth 2-1 0-1 2-2 5-4p
Canon Yaoundé Cam AS Solidarité Gab 7-3 2-1 9-4
ASC Diaraf Sen Stade Malien Mli 3-0 0-4 3-4
Espérance Tun Al-Ahly (Benghazi) Lby 0-0 1-0 1-0
Maseru United Les MMM Tamatave Mad 1-2 2-3 3-5
AS Porto Novo Dah Victoria Club Mokanda CoB 0-1 0-2 0-3
Secteur 6 Nig Enugu Rangers Nga 1-1 0-1 1-2
Young Africans Tan Lavori Publici Som 2-0 0-0 2-0
AS Kaloum Star Gui bye
ASEC (Abidjan) IvC bye
Asante Kotoko Gha bye
Coffee Uga bye
Dynamic Togolais Tog bye
Ismaili Egy bye
AS Vita Club Zai bye
x Abaluhya United were later renamed AFC Leopards
Second Round
AS Kaloum Star Gui Enugu Rangers Nga 3-3 1-2 4-5z
Al-Merreikh Sud Asante Kotoko Gha 2-1 0-1 2-2 4-5p
Coffee FC Uga Young Africans Tan w/o x
Ismaili Egy Espérance Tun w/o x
Stade Malien Mli ASEC (Abidjan) IvC 2-2 1-2 3-4
MMM Tamatave Mad Great Olympics Gha 2-1 0-7 2-8
Victoria Club Mokanda CoB Dynamic Togolais Tog 1-2 0-2 1-4y
AS Vita Club Zai Canon Yaoundé Cam 2-0 1-3 3-3 3-4p
x Young Africans and Espérance withdrew before 1st leg
y Dynamic Togolais were dissolved in 1974
z 1st leg May 16, 2nd leg May 29 in Port Harcourt
Quarterfinals
Coffee FC Uga Great Olympics Gha 0-0 0-2 0-2
Dynamic Togolais Tog Canon Yaoundé Cam 1-2 3-4 4-6
Enugu Rangers Nga ASEC (Abidjan) IvC 0-1 0-2 0-3
Ismaili Egy Asante Kotoko Gha 0-0 0-3 0-3
Semifinals
ASEC (Abidjan) IvC Canon Yaoundé Cam 2-1 1-4 3-5
Great Olympics Gha Asante Kotoko Gha 1-1 0-1 1-2
Final (Dec 5 and 19)
Kumasi Stadium, Kumasi and Militaire Garoua, Yaoundé
Asante Kotoko Gha Canon Yaoundé Cam 3-0 0-2x
x for the final, only points aggregate, not goals aggregate was considered
Final Playoff (Dec 21)
Militaire Garoua, Yaoundé
Canon Yaoundé Cam Asante Kotoko Gha abd
match abandoned at 1-0 to Canon Yaoundé, result stood
First African Champions’ Cup for Canon (Yaounde) and second for Cameroon. Scandalous final, but Canon was awarded.
The heroes one by one. Only the French paid attention to the unknown African players – among them the great Jean Manga-Onguene. The centre-forward never moved to European club.
2.CD Saprissa 30 20 3 7 63-33 43
Alajuelense – champion.
Toronto Metros 24 5 9 10 32 47 89 .395 5,993
Washington Darts 24 8 10 6 36 34 111 .541 3,262
Atlanta defeated New York 0-1 (OT), 2-0
Atlanta Chiefs finished second.
Dallas Tornado was the 1971 NASL champion.
1 
2 
6 
7 
14 
San Luis (Potosi) won the championship and got promotion to the top level. 
1. Toluca 34 14 15 5 38 21 43 1.81 (playoffs)
3. Zacatepec 34 14 10 10 39 37 38 1.05
4. Cruz Azul 34 11 15 8 39 39 37 1.00 [Ciudad Cooperativa]
6. Necaxa 34 10 11 13 44 39 31 1.13 [Ciudad de México]
7. Irapuato 34 8 13 13 34 53 29 0.64
8. Laguna 34 10 8 16 37 47 28 0.79 [Torreón]
9. Atlas 34 5 12 17 32 48 22 0.67 (relegation playoffs) [Guadalajara]
1. América 34 17 10 7 56 33 44 1.70 (playoffs) [Ciudad de México]
2. Monterrey 34 15 10 9 46 37 40 1.24
3. León 34 14 10 10 50 41 38 1.22
6. Puebla 34 11 10 13 43 49 32 0.88
8. Guadalajara 34 11 8 15 34 44 30 0.77
9. Pachuca 34 11 7 16 38 46 29 0.83 (relegation playoffs)
Toluca ended with silver medals.
Champion: AMÉRICA
Relegated: Atlas
Standing from left: Alfonso Estupiñan, Calvo, “Pipas” Calvo, Zúñiga, Emilio Sagot, Walter Elizondo. Crouching: Errol Daniels, Floyd Daniels, Roy Saénz, Mario Vega, Nuñez.
Standing from left: Alfonso Estupiñan, Calvo, “Pipas” Calvo, Zúñiga, Emilio Sagot, Walter Elizondo. Crouching: Errol Daniels, Floyd Daniels, Roy Saénz, Mario Vega, Nuñez. Third consecutive victory for Cruz Azul. The final was played in 1972, which affected Copa Interamericana as well. Actual photos from the final seemingly doesn’t exist, so substitutes.
Cruz Azul (Mexico City) lost the trophy by single goal. The photo is not from the contest, but at least is from 1971-72 season.
Nacional (Montevideo) prevailed with difficulty and won the trophy. Thus, 1971 was a great international success and in the same time not so great, for Copa Interamericana was played in 1972 – counting for 1971, but already the squad was slightly different than the one from the previous year. By default, Nacional was the 1971 king of South America, both Americas, and the world.
Tostao got 24 points.
Eduardo Goncalves de Andrade, forward/attacking midfielder, was 24 years old, but already had almost 10 years of professional football – he debuted in 1962, 15-years old, for his original club America Mineiro (Belo Horizonte) and his 16 goals in 26 games immediately propelled him to bigger club – Cruzeiro – where he not only continued to score goals as a centre midfielder, becoming the biggest star of the club and one of the best Brazilian players.
In 1970 he won the World Cup with Brazil and one of the greatest players at the world finals in Mexico, where he played as a centre-forward, because Brazil had too many midfielders, starting with Pele. He was able to play as a left winger, as a playmaker, as second striker, as attacking midfielder, even as defensive midfielder on occasion – his techinical skills made him versatile and flexible player with great work rate and discipline. Given his age – only 24 in 1971 – he was rightly awarded: not only the present, but the future belonged to him, seen as new Pele. Unfortunately, he got eye injury in 1969, from which he never recovered and his career was cut prematurely in 1973. From the time distance, it was only right Tostao got the award – unlike most world-class stars, he had no chance to play long enough, but his talent deserved recognition.
1.Estudiantes de Mérida 6 5 1 0 18- 9 11 Qualified
4.Valencia FC 6 1 2 3 4- 5 4
1.Estudiantes de Mérida 6 4 1 1 7- 5 9 Winners
4.Tiquire Aragua 6 0 2 4 1- 5 2 
Historic success for Estudiantes (Merida) – they won their first trophy: Copa de Venezuela. Didn’t even play in the top league – and rightly so, for they were founded in this very year! So young and already a winner.
1.Valencia FC 28 17 7 4 46-19 41
2.Deportivo Italia 28 14 9 5 46-23 37
3.Tiquire Aragua 28 12 9 7 39-37 33 [Maracay]
4.Deportivo Galicia 28 12 7 9 42-34 31
5.UD Canarias 28 9 12 7 37-26 30
6.Anzoategui FC 28 8 9 11 32-37 25 [Puerto La Cruz]
7.Deportivo Portugués 28 5 6 17 26-46 16
Valencia FC won their first – and last – title. Standing from left: Tarcicio (BRA), Omar Colmenarez, José Carlos De Oliveira “Zezinho” (BRA), Alfredo Glassman (ARG), Roberto Pérez (ARG), Segundo Martínez (ARG), Raúl Stanich (ARG), George (BRA), Candelario Pacheco (MAS). Crouching: Reinaldo Lovizutto (BRA), Rubén Salles (ARG), Aurelio Dos Santos “Lelo” (BRA), Humberto Tenías, Darío Castillo, José “Tito” Pasternak (ARG).