Football: African club competitions |18 December 2013

Côte d’Or draw Angola’s Kabuscorp, St Michel get ASSM Elgeco Plus

Barclays league division one champions Côte d’Or will open their 2014 Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League campaign against Kabuscorp do Palanca of Angola, while St Michel will play ASSM Elgeco Plus of Madagascar in the Caf Confederation Cup.

The draw for the two African club competitions was made on Monday in Marrakech, Morocco.

On their debut in the Caf Champions League, champions Côte d’Or will travel to Angola to face Kabuscorp do Palanca in the first leg of the qualifying round during the weekend of February 7-9, 2014.

They will then play the return leg encounter the following weekend (February 14-16, 2014).

The winners will face either former champions Zamalek of Egypt or AS Douanes of Niger in the next stage of the tournament.

Reached by phone, Côte d’Or’s Malagasy coach Ahmed Abdou said his team will not shy away from the challenge.

“Although we don’t have much information about the Angolan team, apart that they have some young players and some foreigners (Congolese and French), we will not shy away from the challenge. My team have been training seriously for our debut in the Champions League and we believe playing the Angolan team will be a good experience for us,” said coach Abdou who added that they will be reinforcing their team for the 2014 campaign.

Like Côte d’Or, Kabuscorp do Palanca won the Angola league title for the first time this year.

Fifa World Player of the Year and European Footballer of the Year 1999, Rivaldo, who also won the World Cup with the Brazil team in 2002, played for one year with Kabuscorp do Palanca after signing a one year contract with the club on January 15, 2012.

Last month, the club signed two more Congolese players – international Djo Issama Mpeko and goalkeeper Matampi Vumi Ley – bringing to five their number of players from the Congo. The three others are Biscotte Mbala, Lamy Yekini and Mpele Mpele.

A total of 52 clubs have entered for next year's competition, while champions Al Ahly and Tunisia's Esperance are two of six clubs who have been given byes in the preliminary round.

Several past winners of Africa's foremost club competition, including Zamalek, Enyimba and Raja Casablanca, were involved in the preliminary rounds.

Two-time winners Enyimba will host Ange de Notse of Togo, while Raja will play Diamond Stars of Sierra Leone.

The round of 16 matches will be played between February 28 and March 9, while the final qualifying round matches are slated for March 21-30, 2014.

In the Caf Confederation Cup being contested by 42 clubs, St Michel will meet ASSM Elgeco Plus of Madagascar in the preliminary round.

Coach Ralph Jean-Louis’ St Michel will host the Malagasy side on the weekend of February 7-9, 2014, with the return leg scheduled for February 14-16, 2014.

St Michel, who made a clean sweep in 2012 but could not defend their league crown this year and yet still won three cups – President’s Cup, Airtel Cup and Intelvision Cup – went out of the Caf Champions League on a 1-7 aggregate score last year. They lost the home tie 1-4 and away 0-3 to Tusker FC of Kenya.

This will be St Michel’s 15th season in African club competitions after making their continental debut in 1997. They have gone past the first hurdle seven times.

“We’re happy to have been drawn against a team from the Indian Ocean region, but I would have preferred to play the first leg away. We hope to get more information about the ASSM Elgeco Plus team from our Malagasy contacts and players who are on holiday,” coach Ralph ‘Tiapout’ Jean-Louis told Sports Nation.

He noted that his team started active training yesterday and the pre-season training will begin on January 6, 2014.

Coach Jean-Louis added that hopefully the Seychelles Football Federation will go on with its plan to organise a tournament early next year for the two teams preparing for the African club competitions.

“This will be a big boost as it will help us get some match tests before we tackle the Caf competitions,” said Jean-Louis who guided the Seychelles national team to winning the gold medal for the first time at the Indian Ocean Island Games here in 2011.

If they happen to win the two-leg preliminary round fixture, St Michel will progress to the first round where they will meet the winners of the match between How Mine (Zimbabwe) and Chuoni (Zanzibar). The first leg match is during the weekend of February 28-March 2 and the second leg during the weekend of March 7-9, 2014.

Defending Caf Confederation Cup winners CS Sfaxien will not be defending their title next year as they will be playing in the more prestigious Champions League as well as runners-up TP Mazembe.

Nigerian pair Bayelsa United and Warri Wolves have been given byes, as have Asec Mimosas (Ivory Coast), MAS (Morocco), Djoliba (Mali), Ismaily, Wadi Degla (Egypt), Zesco United (Zambia), Al Ahly Shandy (Sudan) and Etoile du Sahel, CA Bizerte (Tunisia).

G. G.