Remo Stars, second runners-up in the Nigeria professional Football League will this evening get to know their first opponent in the CAF Confederation Cup which is scheduled to begin on 9 September.
Remo Stars, new comers in the second tier continental competition earned their place having placed third in the Nigerian league which produces two teams for the elite Champions League and one slot for the Confederation Cup.
Nigeria’s second slot for the competition will emerge from the ongoing Aiteo Cup.
Remo Stars will be the 23rd Nigerian team to feature after the debut by Lobi Stars and Enugu Rangers when the competition began in 2004 following the merger of the then CAF Cup and African Winners Cup.
This year’s edition will be the 20th. The club will be navigating dangerous curves where big Nigerian teams such as Enugu Rangers, Enyimba, Dolphins among others once competed.
Only Dolphins ever got to the final. But Remo Stars are set to break barriers. Ahead of the impending challenge, the Remo Stars Stadium is currently undergoing a face lift.
Press Conference room and well demarcated press gallery are being put in place ahead of a likely inspection of a CAF team.
When they play their first match of the competition there, it will be the biggest match ever in the town as it would be the first time that the town will be host an international match.
For the state, it will be the first continental match by a team from the state since the 1 November 1987 match involving Abiola Babes and Esperance in Abeokuta.
With injection of new players and the running of a thriving football academy, Remo Stars have improved on their arsenal of the last season.
Daniel Ogunmodede who guided the team from the NNL into the NPFL in the previous season has also returned from a ‘one-year coaching study leave’ in Portugal.
All ears will be attentive at 2pm in Nigeria on Monday as the first opponents of Remo Stars will emerge.
The ceremony will hold at the 6 October City headquarters of CAF at the outskirts of Cairo.
