CAF release pairings for next stage

Kumasi Asante Kotoko will host old foes, Wydad Athletic Club (WAC) of Morocco in the first leg at the Kumasi Sports Stadium whilst Accra Hearts of Oak take on Athletic Sport of Doune of Senegal at the Accra Sports Stadium in the Confederation's Cup competition.

The second leg of the matches will be played in two weeks time in Morocco and Senegal.

The pairings for the competition was culled by the GNA Sports on the website of the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) on Tuesday. The competition is scheduled to start in July with the two Ghanaian clubs scheduled to play their first home matches on July 11, with the return leg coming on between July, 23-24.

It would be recalled that WAC defeated Kotoko in 2002 to annex the Africa Cup Winners Cup competition dubbed "Mandela cup". Both Hearts and Kotoko were relegated into the Confederations Cup competition after failing to advance to the mini league stage of the lucrative CAF Champions league.

Meanwhile Liberty Professionals will travel to Sudan to take on El Hilal of Sudan in the first leg of the competition before returning to Accra to battle them in the second leg.

The three Ghanaian clubs stand a chance of playing in the maiden edition of the mini league of the Confederations Cup that was introduced by CAF this year.

Liberty managed to reach this zone by defying the odds to beat Stade du'Tunisien of Tunisia on 5-4 aggregate.

Confederation Cup draw in full:

Asante Kotoko (Ghana) v Wydad Casablanca (Morocco)
Orlando Pirates (South Africa) v Sable Batie (Cameroon)
APR FC (Rwanda) v Enugu Rangers (Nigeria)
Cotonsport (Cameroon) v Green Buffaloes (Zambia)
Petro Atletico (Angola) v FAR Rabat (Morocco)
Hearts of Oak (Ghana) v AS Douanes (Senegal)
Al Hilal (Sudan) v Liberty Professionals (Ghana)
Canon Yaounde (Cameroon) v Santos (South Africa)

Confederation Cup group draw:

Group A:
Asante Kotoko or Wydad Casablanca
APR FC or Enugu Rangers
Petro Atletico or FAR Rabat
Al Hilal or Liberty Professionals

Group B:
Orlando Pirates or Sable Batie
Cotonsport or Green Buffaloes
Hearts of Oak or AS Douanes
Santos or Canon Yaounde

Meanwhile, the draw for the group stage of the Champions League has also taken place. No Ghanaian club qualified for this stage as Hearts and Kotoko were both knocked out

Nigerian side Enyimba, the defending champions, are in Group A with Tunisia's Etoile Sahel, Ivorian side Africa Sport and newcomers Bakili Bullets of Malawi.

In Group B, Tunisia's Esperance, who were the seeded team in the group, will face USM Alger of Algeria, Jeanne d'Arc of Senegal and South African side SuperSport United.

The first round of group matches will be played between 9-11 July, with the mini-league phase concluding on the weekend of 15-17 October.