Times Of Swaziland: LONG WAIT FOR ‘BULL’ IN CAF

LONG WAIT FOR ‘BULL’ IN CAF
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Ntokozo Magongo on 21/06/2022 08:50:00


MBABANE – Mbabane Highlanders will have to wait for at least two months before
they make their return to the CAF Confederation Cup.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has set September 9-11 for the
preliminary round matches of the 2022 season, while return legs will be on
September 16-18. The second round will run from October 7-9 for the first legs
with return fixtures on October 14-16 for both the CAF Confederation Cup and the
CAF Champions League. The black and white outfit make their return to the
continental tournament having finished the 2021/2022 MTN Premier League season
second, behind of police side, Royal Leopard who will be campaigning in the CAF
Championships after defending the tittle.
Meanwhile, CAF revised the continental slots, that will see 12 countries
eligible to field four teams comprising two in the CAF Champions League and the
same number in the Confederation Cup. Eswatini were left out from the countries
handed the four slots. The 12 countries that would field four teams are Algeria,
Angola, Congo DR, Egypt, Guinea, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan,
Tanzania, and Tunisia. The local teams will have to improve their performance in
the inter-club tournaments if CAF is to increase slots. It is only Mbabane
Swallows who have made it to the group stages of both tournaments, while Leopard
were in the CAF Confederation Cup group stages last season. Both Leopard and
Swallows have never progressed to the knockout stage of the tournaments. CAF is
yet to announce the dates of the draw for both tournaments and that is when
Highlanders and Leopard will find out who their opponents are.