The draws for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) interclub competitions was done on Wednesday 13th December, 2017 during a meeting of the CAF Interclub Committee at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
In all, 59teams were engaged in the draw for the Total CAF Champions League for 2018 and 54teams for the Total CAF Confederations Cup.
Only eight (8) federations did not engage their clubs for this season’s CAF competitions. These eight are Cape Verde, Chad, Eritrea, Namibia, Reunion, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
From a Ghanaian perspective, champions Aduana Stars will face Libyan side Al Tahaddy in the CAF Champions League preliminary round qualifier.
The first leg will be played between the weekend of 9-11 February 2018 and the return leg the following week. The Benghazi-based side won the Libyan Premier League last season.
Aduana Stars are returning to the continent’s flagship inter-clubs competition since 2011.
They suffered early elimination at the hands of Moroccan side WAC after losing 3-0 in Casablanca but managed a 1-0 home win.
El Tahaddy SC are coming back after 40 years with their last appearance in the CAF Champions League dating back to 1978.
Whilst Kumasi Asante Kotoko will face Congolese side Club Athlétique Renaissance Aiglon (CARA) in the preliminary stage of their CAF Confederations Cup.
Asante Kotoko will play host to the 9 time Congolese Champions before travelling to Congo for the second leg encounter. The first leg will be played on the weekend of 9-11 of February 2018 whilst the second leg comes off on the 20-21 February 2018.
Asante Kotoko will be playing in the CAF Confederation Cup as Ghana’s representative having won the MTN FA Cup. This will be their third time in the CAF Confederations Cup after they lost the 2004 finals to Accra Hearts of Oak and a group stage finish back in 2008.
