Simba SC coach Fadlu Davids admits he is still haunted by the CAF Confederation Cup final loss to RS Berkane during the 2021/22 season when he was with Orlando Pirates.

Davids served as a co-coach alongside Mandla Ncikazi at Pirates at the time, but the Soweto giants suffered a painful penalty shootout defeat to the Moroccan side in a single-leg final held in Nigeria.

Now, Davids’ Simba will face Berkane again in the 2024/25 Confederation Cup final, a two-legged affair scheduled for next month. This presents a clear opportunity for revenge after the Tanzanian team progressed to the final with a 1-0 aggregate victory.

Simba secured a 1-0 win in the first leg against Stellenbosch last Sunday and successfully defended that slender lead in the return leg at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday.

Berkane reached the final after convincingly overcoming CS Constantine in their two-legged semi-final, which also concluded on Sunday.

As Simba reaches the final of this competition for the first time since 1993 (under a different club structure), Davids revealed that he received a message from a “special” figure within Orlando Pirates, highlighting that he cannot forget the events of three years ago as he prepares to face Berkane once more.

“I just had a message from one of the important officials at Orlando Pirates, and he said, ‘Remember it was Berkane that beat us on penalties’,” Davids disclosed.

It remains unclear whether the “important official” Davids referred to is Orlando Pirates chairman, Dr Irvin Khoza.

“That match still haunts me. We [Pirates] beat Simba in the quarter-finals, we beat Al Ahli Tripoli [in the semi-finals], and then we faced Berkane and lost on penalties,” Davids recalled.

“Berkane is an improved side. We played against their coach [Moïne Chaâbani] last season [when Davids was the assistant coach at Raja Casablanca and won the league undefeated]…”

Simba previously lost this cup competition in 1993 to Ivory Coast’s Stella Adjamé 2-0 on aggregate.

Simba’s intense schedule in the Confederation Cup has resulted in several rescheduled home league matches. They currently sit second in the Tanzanian league table with 57 points after 22 games, trailing leaders Young Africans by 13 points, although they have four matches in hand.

Davids, who took charge of Simba at the beginning of the season, is now focused on playing their backlog of league fixtures before the two-legged final arrives.

“We have four important league matches within two weeks before we travel to Morocco [for the first leg of the Confederation Cup final on 17 May, with the second leg on 25 May],” Davids explained.

“It’s about catch-up games now – two days match, two days match. Let’s celebrate and have our day off, and start on collecting points for the 13 points that we are behind.”