Former Nigeria Professional Football League champions Rivers United will play on the continent ahead of the new football season.
The Port Harcourt-based were among the seeded teams at the draw held in Cairo on Tuesday. Consequently, they will not play in the first but second round of the preliminaries
Rivers United will take on the winner of the between Etoile Flante (Burkina Faso) & Ziguinchor (Senegal) in the second round in a bid to make it into the group stage of the competition.
Stanley Eguma’s side played in the 2022/2023 season of the CAF Champions League. Unfortunately, they crashed out in the quarter-finals after losing 2 nil on aggregate to Tanzania’s Young Africans.
The second preliminary round will take place between 15th-17th Sept and 29th Sept – 1st Oct.
On the flip side, Nigeria’s FA Cup champions, Bendel Insurance will take part in the first round and probably the second round of the competition.
Bendel Insurance will play ASO Chlef (Algeria) in the first round. Should the Benin-based club scale through, they will take on former champions of the competition RS Berkane (Morocco) in the final round before the group stage.
The first leg of the first round will take place between the 18th and 20th of August while the second leg is scheduled for the 25th -27th of August as well.
Monday Odigie’s side returns to the continent for the first time since 1982.
