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Grace Chingoma, Harare Bureau
CAPS United have budgeted a staggering $1.5m for the defence of their Castle Lager Premiership crown and to cater for their participation in the Caf Champions League this year.

The Green Machine will only know the teams they will face in the Champions League last 16 when the draw for the group stage will be conducted on April 26 in Cairo.

In a brief statement yesterday, Caf confirmed the draw date.

“The draws for the 16 qualified teams for the group phases of Total Caf Champions League 2017 and the Total Caf Confederation Cup 2017 will take place on Wednesday, 26 April 2017 at the Caf Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt at 14H00 local time (12H00 GMT),” read the statement.

Yesterday, Caps United president Farai Jere revealed they have already done their estimates so that they can have enough time to secure funding.

They used the Caf rankings, which came out on Monday, to draw their budget.

Caps United were thrown into the lowest pot together with Zambian champions Zanaco, Ferroviario de Beira of Mozambique and Ethiopia St George’s.

This means it’s certain Caps will travel across the continent for their Champions League group games.

“As a club we are already working with the estimate budget. We worked with the furthest team from each pot in mind to come up with our figures for the three trips which we will undertake in this stage.

“If you look at those pots, we are expecting at least two North African trips, maybe a trip to Sudan if not two. We came up with our figure using the worst case scenario so we already have our budgets for the upcoming games.

“We cannot wait for the draw in April then start drafting the travel and accommodation bills when the games will be starting in May.

“We need to secure funding for these matches and the time to do that is now,” said Jere.

For this year, the club have tabled a budget of $1.5 million with the larger chunk of that money being chewed by the African safari expedition.

The Green Machine will need about $830 000 for their continental club games while the                 defence of their domestic title will require about $700 000.

Should Caps United finish fourth in their group in the Champions League, they will get about $500 000 after Caf have done their deductions from the $550 000 reserved for such teams. Jere said they have agreed with the players that they will advance them their 30 percent share of the prize money rather than have them wait up to the end of the year to get that bonus.