David GOMBE
Uganda Premier league champions SC Villa have been pitted against Ethiopia Premier league champions Commercial Bank of Ethiopia(CBE) in the preliminary round of the CAF Champions League.
The preliminary round draw was held at the CAF headquarters in Cairo on Thursday.
Dusan Stojanovic coached side will first host the Ethiopian side on the weekend of 16th-18th August while the second leg will be held between 23rd-25th August 2024.
The aggregate winner after the two legs will face the winner between last season’s semifinalists and Tanzanian champions Young Africans or Burundi’s Vital’O.
CBE were promoted back to the Ethiopian Premier League at the start of last season and ironically went on to win the league title.
The Ethiopian side is the home to Ugandan forward Simon Peter Oketch who previously played for BUL FC.
The winner of the second preliminary round will prevail to the group stage of the 2024/25 CAF Champions League.
Only two Ugandan sides KCCA FC and Vipers SC have ever progressed to the group phase of the competition however SC Villa reached the final in the old format of Africa’s biggest club competition in the early 90s.
