LEOPARD NEED OVER E300K FOR ALGERIA TRIP

MBABANE – Royal Leopard trip to Algeria to face JS Kayblie will not come cheap.

The police side would have to dig deeper in their pockets to honour the second leg tie away in Algiers in the TOTALEnergies CAF Confederation Cup as they are expected to spend not less than E300 000. The money will be spent on 25 members in air tickets and accommodation when going for the second leg match billed for December 5. The first leg match will be played on November 28 at Mavuso Sports Centre.

Leopard has already spent over E300 000 honouring the CAF Champions League preliminary rounds against Zambia’s ZESCO United and Angola’s Grupo Segrada Esperance. The team could have spent more but thanks to the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and other stakeholders who assisted them, especially with air tickets for both trips to Zambia and Angola.

defeated

Leopard first defeated Zambia’s ZESCO United in the first round of the preliminaries and they were eliminated by Angola’s Grupo Desportivo Sagrada Esperance on 3-2 aggregate score. The results saw Leopard dropping to the CAF Confederation Cup additional preliminary round. A source close to the matter confirmed that this is going to be one of the most expensive trips undertaken by the police side. The source said each air ticket costs around E14 000 but may even go up to E17 000.

Leopard Public Relations Officer (PRO) Frank Hurube confirmed that they were facing financial challenges and they were aware that it would cost them an arm and a leg to honour the match. “We are still going to meet and submit our report to the EFA after our campaign in the CAF Champions League ended. We are aware that this trip is going to be expensive and we still plead with stakeholders to assist the club financially as it represents the country in one of the biggest inter-clubs tournaments,” he said.

minimum

A victory for Royal leopard against the highly rated JS Kabylie will earn them a spot in the group stages where they are guaranteed a minimum of E7.7 million. The loss against Esperance saw them missing out in reaching the group stages of the CAF Champions League that had a package of about E8.4 million. It is only Mbabane Swallows that have reached the group stages of both the CAF inter-club tournaments being the CAF Champions Legaue and the CAF Confederation Cup in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

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