By SAMUEL LUKHANDA –

. Green Buffalos FC

GREEN Buffaloes have been handed a short straw in the 2018 CAF inter-club competition draws among the four Zambian sides after they were paired with Egyptian side El-Masry SC in the preliminary round.
The draws were conducted yesterday during the meeting of the CAF inter-club Committee at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
Zambia will have an unprecedented four teams in the CAF inter-club competitions next year with Zesco United and Zanaco playing in the Champions League while Buffaloes and Nkana will be in the second tier Confederations Cup.
MTN-FAZ Super League champions Zesco will face minnows from Zanzibar Jeshi la Kujenga Uchumi football club (JKU SC) in the preliminary round of the Champions League playing the first game away.
If they win as they may face ASEC Mimosa which has to overcome a yet-to-be-named team from Benin in the preliminary to renew their rivalry after they were in the same group last time they both participated in this competition.
Zesco had the better of the Ivorians.
Zanaco who play their first game at home will have to duel with Gambia A.F in the preliminary round and need to start well.
They will be favorites to go to the next round after making the group stage this year and were only piped by eventual winners Wydad by goal aggregate in a group comprising of former winners in Cotton Sport and Al-Ahly.
Should they negotiate the preliminary round, either Bantu FC ofLesotho or Mbabane Swallows of Swaziland will be waiting on the otherside.
Fifty-nine teams were engaged for the Total CAF Champions League 2018and only five were exempted in the preliminary in champions Wydad of Morocco, Al Ahly of Egypt, TP Mazembe of DR Congo, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Esperance of Tunisia.
Buffaloes returning to continent football were handed a nightmare draw after being paired with the North Africans who have been giving Zambian sides in the CAF competition problems.
They need to adjust quickly to the continental style otherwise it will be over at preliminary stage.
They play the first game awayto Egypt and the return in Lusaka.
Al-Masry has twice been semi-finalists in CAF Winners Cup and CAF Cup.
Should they get past the Egyptians, Buffaloes play the winner between Simba of Tanzania and Gendarmerie Tnale of Djibouti.
The 12-time Zambian champions Nkana are the only team from Zambia to be given an exemption in the preliminary round as they play in the Confederations Cup.
They will await the winner of Stade Malien of Maliagainst C.R. Belouizdad of Algeria tie in the first round and they will be away in the first game.
Fifty-four were in the pot for the Total CAF Confederation Cup 2018draws.
Only eight federations did not engage their clubs namely CapeVerde, Chad, Eritrea, Namibia, Reunion, Sao Tome and Principe, SierraLeone and Somalia.