NIGERIA’s representatives in next season’s CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup will know their preliminary stages opponents on Thursday (today) when the draw is conducted.
Nigeria Premier Football League champions Enugu Rangers and Remo Stars will both seek passage to the group stage of the CAF Champions League while Enyimba and Federation Cup champions El-Kanemi Warriors will hope to make the group stage of the Confederation Cup.
Enyimba are however drawn bye in the first round of the preliminary round of the Confederation Cup as one of the 12 highest-ranked teams in the competition.
Nigeria’s other representative in the second tier, El-Kanemi Warriors are in Pot 1 along with 12 other clubs.
For the CAF Champions League, a total of 59 clubs will be engaged from 47 African countries, while the CAF Confederation Cup will also have 52 clubs representing 41 countries.
Nigerian champions, Enugu Rangers are in Pot 4 with three others in the lowest ranked teams category.
Enugu Rangers are back on the continent for the first time since 2016 with the hope of advancing to the group stages as they have been busy recruiting players in the last week.
Remo Stars are in Pot 3 along with 15 others in the highest-ranked teams category. Five teams including the defending champions, Al Ahly of Egypt and Esperance Sportive de Tunis, the runners up are exempted from the opening round along with Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, TP Mazembe and Petroleous of Angola.
For Remo Stars, it’s their third consecutive season on the continent but they haven’t played in the group stages before.
Last season, Rivers United were Nigeria’s sole representative on the continent but they only managed to reach the quarter-finals of the Confederation Cup.
Enyimba remains the most successful Nigerian club on the continent with their back-to-back CAF Champions League titles in 2003 and 2004.
