CAF Champions league holders Wydad Casablanca head a list of 10 former winners in the draw for next year’s African Champions League soccer race, facing a tough struggle in their bid to buck the trend and retain their title.
Eight time Champions Al Ahly made the squad that see Ghanaian side Aduana return to the elite Competition after seven years.
Confederation Cup holders TP Mazembe Englebert of the Democratic Republic of Congo will also be highly fancied along with compatriots AS Vita Club, who won their only title in 1973, but were runners-up just three years ago.
The north African challenge also includes the Algerian duo of Mouloudia Alger (winners in 1976) and Entente Setif (1988, 2014) and the perennial Tunisian contenders Esperance (1994, 2011).
South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, who were 2016 winners and knocked out in this year’s quarter-finals by Wydad on penalties, are back for a fourth successive year and there is a return for ASEC Abidjan of the Ivory Coast, whose sole victory in the continent’s top club competition came in 1998.
In all entries have come in from all but nine of the 56 member, and associate members, countries of the Confederation of African Football. Missing out are the Cape Verde Islands, Chad, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Eritrea, Namibia, Reunion, Sao Tome e Principe, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
Again, the 12 best ranked countries – in terms of the achievement of their representatives in the two annual African club competitions over the last five years – get to enter two teams. The rest receive just one in each of the two competitions.
It is the first time Zambia have been allowed two in each competition, knocking Cameroon out of the top 12 and cutting their entries in half. The Central African Republic, Lesotho, Togo and Uganda are only entering a team in the Champions League, while Djibouti are making a rare appearance, but sending police team, Gendarmerie Tnale, to the Confederation Cup.
As is tradition, there is no drawing of lots, but rather a tennis-style draw created by CAF’s secretariat and signed off by the organisation’s inter-clubs competition committee that is largely based on geographical considerations in an effort to keep travel costs down for clubs in the early rounds.
The committee meets next week in Cairo and once they have approved the draw, it will be released by CAF. A draw in April for the later stages of both competition is conducted in a more conventional format and in public.
CAF 2018 Champions League Participants
Two entries
ALGERIA: Entente Setif, Mouloudia Alger
CONGO: AC Leopards, AS Otoho
DR CONGO: AS Vita Club, TP Mazembe Englebert
EGYPT: Al Ahly, Misr Makkassa
IVORY COAST: ASEC Abidjan, Williamsville AC
MALI: Stade Malien, Real Bamako
MOROCCO: DH El Jadidi, Wydad Casablanca (holders)
NIGERIA: Plateau United, MFM FC
SOUTH AFRICA: Bidvest Wits
SUDAN: Al Hilal, Al Merreikh TUNISIA: Esperance, Etoile Sahel
ZAMBIA: Zesco United, Zanaco
One entry
ANGOLA: Primeiro Agosto
BENIN: To be confirmed by the member association
BOTSWANA: Township Rollers
BURKINA FASO: RC Kadiogo
BURUNDI: Lydia Ludic Burundi Academic
CAMEROON: To be confirmed by the member association (Eding Sport)
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Olympic Real Bangui
EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Leones Vegetarianos
ETHIOPIA: St George
GABON: CF Mounana
GAMBIA: Gambia Armed Forces
GHANA: Aduana Stars
GUINEA: Horoya
GUINEA BISSAU: Benfica
KENYA: Gor Mahia
LESOTHO: Bantu FC
LIBERIA: LISCR FC
LIBYA: Al Tahadi
MADAGASCAR: CNaPS
MALAWI: Be Forward Wanderers
MAURITANIA: ASAC Concorde. MAURITIUS: Pamplemousse SC
MOZAMBIQUE: UD Songo
NIGER: AS Fan
RWANDA: Rayon Sports
SENEGAL: Generation Foot
SEYCHELLES: St Louis
SWAZILAND: Mbabane Swallows
SOUTH SUDAN: Al Salam
TANZANIA: Young Africans
TOGO: AS Port Lome
UGANDA: Kampala Capital City Authority
ZANZIBAR: JKU SC
ZIMBABWE: FC Platinum. – ESPN.