CAF withhold draw results
CAF Inter-club Ad hoc Committee has shelved the outcome of the draws for the 2018/19 continental club tournaments conducted in Morocco on Saturday.
Two Malawian clubs—Nyasa Big Bullets and Silver Strikers—have entered the Champions League and Confederation Cup, respectively.
Reports filtering in indicate that committee says there are some decisions they need to make before releasing the draw.
However, unofficial findings show that Bullets have been drawn against Namibian side African Stars in the preliminary round.
The People’s Team will host Stars in the first leg on November 27/28. The return leg will be played a week later.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) licensing and compliance manager Casper Jangale yesterday said they were yet to get communication on the results of the draws from CAF.
“All we know is that it was held on Saturday, but the communication has not been sent yet,” he said.
The transitioned 2018/19 CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup qualifying round will run from November to May acting as a bridge between the current and new formats of the 54-year competition.
Since debuting in 1964, the Champions League, formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, was a February-to-November competition.
But with many African countries having an August-to-May season, CAF agreed last year to change the dates of the Champions League and second-tier Confederation Cup competitions.
A format of home-and-away qualifying rounds, a six-matchday group phase, and two-leg quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals remains.
There is also no immediate change to the prize money, which kicks in at the group stage with $550 000 (about K404 million) and rises to $2.5 million (about K1.8 billion) for the champions.
Bullets last took part in the CAF Champions League in 2015 when they took part in the Champions League while the Bankers last participated in a continental tournament 25 years ago.
