Exempted from the preliminary round, they enter the champions’ league in the round of 16 against Dolphins of Nigeria.
The African champions League and the African Confederations cup will enter the round of 16 this weekend with two Cameroonian clubs; Coton Sport and Union engaged in each of the categories. League leaders, Coton Sports who were exempted from the preliminary round of the African Champions League because of her past record in the competition, will join the fray this weekend in the 16th finals with an encounter against the Dolphins of Nigeria. The Dolphins won’t be an easy nut to crack for the cotton weavers from Garoua given that the Dolphins are in good shape after having trounced Sony de Ela Nguema of the Equatorial Guinea 6-0 on aggregate in the preliminary round to clinch a 16th finals spot. More so, they will be slugging it out with the Dolphins at their own backyard in Port Harcourt-Nigeria.
While Coton Sport will be traveling to Nigeria to challenge the Dolphins in the African champions League, Unisport, the lone surviving Cameroonian club in the African Confederations Cup, will be playing host to yet another Nigerian club, Heartlands of Owerri formerly known as Iwuanyanwu. Unisport overcame the preliminary round hurdle by edging Sewe San Pedro of Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 on aggregate and will certainly have an uphill task to topple the Heartlands who were exempted from the preliminary round of the competition because of their good records. They are one of two Nigerian clubs that have never been relegated.
It is worthy to note that Astres and Union were equally engaged in continental competitions this year but were both butted out at the preliminary round. Astres was knocked out of the African champions’ league by the Diplomats of 8e Arrondissement of Congo Brazzaville. Both sides were tied at 2-2 on aggregate but Diplomat sailed through thanks to the away goal advantage since they score in Douala while the Brazilians of Bepanda were unable to score in Brazzaville. Union raised hopes of sailing to the knock out stage in the competition after obtaining a narrow 1-0 victory against Kallon FC of Sierra Leone in Douala but bowed out of the competition after losing 0-2 in the return leg in Free Town.
