LPRC Oilers Hold a 35-Year CAF Club Competition Record

Published: October 4, 2024

MONROVIA — It’s a record many would envy as Liberian football club LPRC Oilers maintain a record that has lasted more than three decades—specifically 35 years. The Oil Boys are the only Liberian club to have reached the Quarter Finals of any Confederation of African Football (CAF) club competition.

Back in 1989, the Oilers played in the Quarter-finals of the then Cup Winners Cup, where they first eliminated Cameroonian club Panthere de Bangangté with a 2-1 goal aggregate. After the first leg ended goalless in Cameroon, the Oilers won 2-1 at the SKD in the second leg, with forward Sam Bedford, who was studying in the United States, returning briefly to clinch the winner before heading back to the US.

Their next opponents were AS Abengourou from Ivory Coast.

The Ivorians won the first leg at home 3-2, but the Liberian club erased the deficit with a 2-0 win in the second leg. Sam Bedford shone again, alongside captain and defensive rock James Jappah, midfielder Paul Jappah, tireless midfielder Gabriel Johns, playmaker Nyema Collins, defensive ace Alfred Killen, and the sublime Yaway Brown, among others.

They then advanced to the Quarter-finals, thus becoming the first ever Liberian club to achieve such a feat, but their fairy-tale run ended on a 3-1 goal aggregate to Kenyan club Gor Mahia.

After a nil-nil draw in the first leg in Nairobi, the Oilers unexpectedly lost at home to Gor Mahia 3-1. Gor Mahia are nicknamed “the club with many wives.”

It’s now been 35 years, and the Oilers still hold the record. With another league season soon to start, two clubs will ultimately represent Liberia in the African Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. Liberian football aficionados are eager to see the Oilers’ long-standing “Gold and Black” record broken.

It is worth recalling that the now-disbanded Barrack Young Controllers (BYC) and Paynesville Football Club (PFC) came closest, but their campaigns were cut short by Azam and Stade Malien of Tanzania and Mali in 2013 and 2024, respectively.