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Grace Chingoma Harare Bureau
HARARE City secretary-general Mathew Marara believes they have been handed a fair draw in their maiden dance with the CAF Confederation Cup in which the Sunshine Boys will start their campaign against opposition from Madgascar in the preliminary round.

The Sunshine Boys will also remain in the Southern African region for the first round should they clear the preliminary round stage with Zambian opposition awaiting them.

According to the draw conducted by the Confederation of African Football in Cairo, Egypt on Friday night, the Chibuku Super Cup winners will begin their campaign with a home assignment against AS Adema on the weekend of February 12-14.

Coach Taurai Mangwiro and his men will then travel to Antananarivo on the weekend of February 26-28.

Harare City will be competing in Africa’s second tier inter-club competition for the first time after they won the Chibuku Super Cup on the second time of asking.

Last year Harare City were losing finalists, having lost to FC Platinum at Mandava.

However, their opponents are more experienced than them and have two Champions League appearances under their belt as well as four Confederation Cup appearances.

AS Adema are however, not newcomers to the continental game as they have been the domiant force in Madagascan football.

They won their national league title three times and the last time they won it was in 2012, which enabled them to take part in the Champions League.

Should Harare City prevail over AS Adema, they face a potentially tougher proposition in Zanaco of Zambia who have a bye in the preliminary round.

Zanaco have featured in the Champions League five times and have a single appearance in the Confederation Cup in which they reached the quarter-finals in 2010.

They have also won the Zambian league six times.

The first round match will be played on the weekend of March 11-13 and the winner between Harare City and AS Adema would be at home first. With the reverse fixture scheduled for Zambia on the weekend of March 18-20.

It will not be so plain sailing for Mangwiro,who was Rodwell Dhlakama’s assistant when Monomotapa reached the group stage in the Champions League in 2009.

Harare City will have to overcome West African or North African opposition in the second round where they will date either As Bakary-Djan de Baroueli of Mali or Tunisian outfit Stade Gabesien whose winner would have to clear the hurdle posed by AS Kaloum of Guinea, who have a bye into the first round.

However, before the Sunshine Boys can trouble themselves with the second round matrix, they will have to first negotiate their way against AS Adema.

AS Adema are also not new to Zimbabwean opposition having played the now defunct Lengthens in the 2010 Confederation Cup at the same stage.

The Happy People as Lengthens were affectionately known beat AS Adema to progress to the first round.

Sunshine Boys secretary Marara, however, reckoned that the draw was fair for them although they would have preferred to start away.

“It’s a fair draw and we would have preferred to start away but nevertheless we will give it our best and see how it goes.

“Usually in these tournaments playing at home gives a team advantage and it’s better to start away and should the result go either way you will capitalise at home rather than to finish away where it would be difficult to capitalise on if you would have not played very well at home.

“There’s no need to under rate any team as we believe any team in this competition is competitive enough so we’re going to be careful,” Marara said.

Marara said they would be relishing playing against Zambian opposition.

“It’s likely going to be a good game. We know a lot about Zambian teams and it’s good for us to meet them.

“We expect it to be hot in the latter stages but the initial games are fair and we hope to acclimatise in this tournament in the earlier stages so that by the team we would meet opposition from regions like West Africa or North Africa we would have become used.

“There’s nothing to fear going into the Confederation Cup and we’re confident of ourselves,’’ Marara said.

Marara said Harare City had not yet beefed up their squad.

“In terms of players, we haven’t done much and we expect to finalise it in two weeks. We’ve just managed to renew the contracts of the players which were expiring this year except for Talent Chawapiwa, whom we haven’t finished negotiating with.

“Then we will organise a local friendly match preferably against Chicken Inn, who are also playing in the CAF competition. We’re looking at playing one more team in an international friendly either here or away but we definitely need an international game,” said Marara.

Meanwhile, Champions League representatives Chicken Inn will meet South African Premiership side Mamelodi Sundowns in the preliminary round of the tournament.

Joey Antipas’ charges will be at home first the same weekend Harare City host a team from Madagscar.

The winner between the Gamecocks and Sundowns will then meet AC Leopards from the Republic of Congo commonly referred to as Congo Brazzaville in the first round.

AC Leopards, who won Confederation Cup in 2012 and are seasoned campaigners in the African Safari have a bye in the preliminary round.

And should Chicken Inn manage to get past AC Leopards, they will, in the second round, meet the winner between Mafunzo of Zanzibar, AS Vita of DRC, Botswana’s Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Ferroviaro de Maputo of Mozambique.