Mamelodi Sundowns will be keenly awaiting the outcome of Tuesday’s African Champions League draw as the record-breaking South African title winners embark on a 10th successive campaign in the continent’s top club competition.
Sundowns, who won an unprecedented sixth back-to-back title last season, have reached the Champions League group stage in all but one of the previous nine editions, winning in 2016 and last year failing narrowly on the away goals rule to reach the final.
Sundowns are among 52 clubs entered in the 2023-24 Caf Champions League and will be hoping for a bye in the first round, leaving them with only one round of the preliminary competition to negotiate before the group phase.
The draw will be conducted at 13h00 CAT at the Confederation of African Football’s headquarters in Cairo.
ORLANDO PIRATES BACK IN THE COMPETITION
Orlando Pirates, who were runners-up to Sundowns in the DStv Premiership, are South Africa’s other representatives in the field, returning to the Champions League for the first time since 2019 when they suffered an embarrassing first-round loss to Zambian rookies Green Eagles.
Pirates were the first South African club to win an African title, taking the old-style African Champions Cup in 1995 with an upset win away at ASEC Abidjan in the Ivory Coast.
Sundowns lost in the final in 2001 to Al Ahly of Egypt but beat their Cairo neighbours Zamalek over two legs in the 2016 decider.
Sekhukhune United and SuperSport United will be competing in the African Confederation Cup, with Sekhukhune making their African club competition debut after reaching last season’s Nedbank Cup finals, where they lost to Pirates.
SuperSport, whose third-place finish in the DStv Premiership qualified them for the Confederation Cup, were runners-up in the competition in 2017.
There are 52 clubs who have entered the Confederation Cup.