African club competition draw date announced

Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch will later this month discover the identity of their next opponents in this season’s African club competition when the draw is conducted in Qatar.

The Confederation of African Football on Wednesday said the draw for the knockout stages of the two competitions would be held in Doha on February 20.

Pirates and Sundowns could likely be drawn against each other in the last eight as the two will be in separate pots for the Champions League quarterfinal pairings, with Pirates having won their group but Sundowns finishing runners-up in theirs.

In the African Confederation Cup, Stellenbosch were runners-up in their group and therefore will be face one of holders Zamalek (Egypt), USM Alger from Algeria or Simba of Tanzania in the last eight.

The Confederation Cup draw will take place at 4pm (South African time) on February 20, followed by the Champions League draw one hour later.

The quarterfinals of both competitions have been moved to midweek fixtures after being originally scheduled straight after the World Cup qualifiers at the end of March and presenting a problem for players to get back to their clubs in time after international duty.

They are now to be played three days later originally scheduled, with the first legs of the Champions League scheduled on April 1-2 and the return matches one week later.

The Confederation Cup quarterfinal fixtures take place on April 2 and 9.

Last week, CAF took a decision to do away with ‘cup-tieing’ players and now allow clubs to register a player for the Champions League or the Confederation Cup, who has participated in either of these Competitions for another football club within the same football season.

That means Jayden Adams, who played for Stellenbosch in the Confederation Cup, can compete for Sundowns in the Champions League.

CAF also extended the deadline for registering additional players for both competition to February 28. The previous registration deadline for a maximum of seven additional players had been January 31.

Champions League teams: Al Ahly SC (Egypt), Al Hilal (Sudan), AS FAR (Morocco), Espérance Sportive de Tunis (Tunisia), Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates (South Africa), Pyramids (Egypt), MC Alger (Algeria).

Confederation Cup teams: Zamalek S (Egypt), Asec Mimosas (Cote d’Ivoire), Al Masry (Egypt), CS Constantine (Algeria), RS Berkane (Morocco), Simba SC (Tanzania), Stellenbosch FC (South Africa), USM Alger (Algeria).