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Kenyan Premier League Champions Gor Mahia will face Equatorial Guinea Champions Leones Vegetarianos F.C in the African Champions League preliminary round  next year.

The draw was conducted today at the Confederation of African Football Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

K’Ogalo as Gor is famously known will host the first leg of the two legged encounter between 9th and 11th February 2018 with the second leg coming a week later in Malabo.

Leones are a little known name in the African club football unlike Gor who were the CAF Winners’ Cup winners in 1987.

But they are not completely new to the CAF club competitions as they represented Equatorial Guinea in the 2015 Confederations Cup for the first time – exiting at the preliminary round after being knocked-out by Nigeria’s Dolphins 3-5 on penalty after a 1-1 aggregate score.

They are currently the reigning Equatorial Guinea’s “Liga Nacional de Futbol” Champions; a title they bagged for the first time this year under Coach Jose David Ekang.

This will be their first ever campaign in the Africa’s premium club competition while Gor are making a return since 2016 when they failed to go past the initial stages.

Leones club was founded on 20th July 200 by Spaniard Juan Rojas, a vegetarian man from Granada.

Their major success came in 2014 when they won the Equatoguinean Cup thus earning a ticket to the 2015 CAF Confederations Cup.

They play their home matches at 15,250 capacity Estadio de Malabo in the Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo.

Aggregate winner between Gor and Leones will face either Tunisia’s giants Esperance or Mauritania’s ASAC Concorde in the first round for a spot in the lucrative groups’ stage.

First round losers drop to the CAF Confederations Cup playoff stage where they face the competition’s first round winners in two legged fixtures for a place in the groups’ stage of the second tier CAF club tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African Football Writer contributing @Soka25east | Commentator; appeared on @MySoccerAfrica, @KweseSports, @ntvkenya, others | Keen follower of African Football. E-mail: bonfaceosano@gmail.com

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