By Rasaq Oboirien
NIGERIA Premier League champions, Rangers International of Enugu and runners-up, Rivers United will kick off their CAF Champions League campaign away from home, reports NaijaSportsXtra.blogspot.com.
Both teams were on Thursday drawn against J.S Saoura (Algeria) and AS Real Bamako in the preliminary round of the continent top elite inter club football championship.
Coach Imama Amapakabo and his Rivers United counterpart, Stanley Eguma will be leading their teams out against Algerian and Malian sides on February 10-12,2017 for the 1st leg tie.
The return legs will be played in Enugu and Port-Harcourt respectively on February 17-19.
Meanwhile, the die will be cast for the Flying Antelopes if they qualify from the preliminary round as they be guest to Egyptian giants, Zamalek in the round of 16 while Rivers United will host either Sony Nguema (Equatorial Guinea) or Sudan's Al-Merrikh.
Both legs of the round of 16 fixtures will be played on March 10-12 and 17-19 respectively.
The winner of the fixture will automatically qualify to the money winning stage of the championship.
Meanwhile, the follow the review of the prize money by CAF, the champions get a whooping sum of $2.5 million (about N788 million) and play in the FIFA World Club Cup.
The runners-up will receive $1.25 million (N394 million), semi-finalists $875,000 (N276 million), quarter-finalists $650,000 (N205 million) and the eight group stage qualifiers who fail to make the knockout stage $550,000 (N173 million) each.
