With the Cosafa Senior Challenge coming back to action in July in Zambia the participating countries have confirmed that they will take part.

Cosafa has 14 members and they have all confirmed that they will travel to the 2012 Afcon Champions for the tournament.

The Cosafa Senior Challenge tournament has not been played in the past three years and Zambia will host the tournament in two areas, Lusaka and the Copperbelt from July 6-21, 2013.

A Cosafa delegation, led by COO Sue Destombes, was in Zambia last week to inspect facilities ahead of the competition. Cosafa approved Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka and Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola as the two host stadia for the tournament.

Former African champions Ismaily of Egypt survived a scare in Madagascar at the weekend to reach the last-16 round of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Taking what appeared a comfortable two-goal lead into the return match against TCO Boeny in Mahajanga, the experienced African campaigners fell 2-0 behind three minutes into the second half.

But Ghanaian John Antwi scored midway through the second half and Ibrahim Hassan levelled in the final minute to earn a 2-2 on the day and a 4-2 overall victory for the Egyptians.

Zola Raveloarison had put Boeny in front four minutes before half-time and Alain Andrianantenaina doubled the lead three minutes after the interval to raise hopes of a rare Malagasy victory in a CAF club competition.

Egypt's Ismaily needed two late goals to break down a resilient Terrible CO side, beating the Madagascar club 2-0 in Alexandria in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup round of 32 on Sunday.

The Dervishes scored in a three-minute second-half spell to ensure they would head into the second leg in a fortnight as favourites to reach the last 16 of Africa's secondary club competition.

Midfielder Ahmed Khairy broke the deadlock in the 77th minute with a precise shot from inside the area.

Ghanaian forward John Antwi, 20, doubled the lead with 10 minutes remaining when he skillfully skipped past a challenger, burst into the area and fired home from a tight angle.

Tunisian duo CS Sfaxien and Etoile du Sahel face daunting tests in this weekend’s first leg matches of the 1/16 th round of the 2103 Orange CAF Confederation Cup against West African opponents.
 
Sfaxien and Etoile, who both drew a bye at the prelims get their first feel of the second-tier continental club championship with home games against Gamtel and Onze Createurs of Gambia and Mali respectively.
 
The two clubs, both former winners of the competition find themselves in dicey situations against opponents ranked nowhere near the big guns of continental football.

Danny Jordaan, South Africa's 2010 World Cup chief, has failed in another bid for a major administrative position in the Confederation of African Football.

Jordaan was a candidate for a place on the Caf executive committee at Sunday's congress in Marrakech, Morocco.

But the 62-year-old narrowly lost out to Madagascar's Ahmad, who uses only one name, after the voting went to a second poll.

Amadou Diakite of Mali and Benin's Moucharafou Anjorin also won seats.

This was Jordaan's second bid to join African football's inner cabinet. He also failed to win one of the places reserved for Africa on the Fifa executive committee, withdrawing his candidacy at the last minute.

Gabonese club US Bitam created a CAF Confederation Cup record when they overwhelmed Desportivo Guadalupe from Sao Tome e Principe 12-1 at the weekend.

The preliminary-round rout was the biggest victory margin in the 10 years of the second-tier pan-African competition, eclipsing a 9-0 victory by South African side SuperSport United in the second edition.

Bitam entered the return match in northern Gabon with a 5-0 lead and the 17-1 aggregate score is also a record for a competition created after the African Cup Winners Cup and CAF Cup were discontinued.

New Edubiase United made a tentative start in the 2013 CAF Confederation Cup at the weekend as they set off on a mission to bring the trophy back to Ghana.

An Alhassan Nuhu goal on nine minutes earned the unfashionable club from southern town Bekwai a 1-0 first-leg victory over experienced African campaigners Diables Noirs of Congo Brazzaville.

Cash-strapped Edubiase needed assistance from the national football body to avoid becoming the second Ghanaian side in succession after Nania to withdraw from the second-tier CAF club competition.

United, who qualified by winning the national FA Cup, also had to switch the fixture to capital city Accra because their ground does not meet international standards.

Kano Pillars of Nigeria and Orlando Pirates of South Africa hit five and Primeiro Agosto of Angola and Tusker of Kenya four as the CAF Champions League began this weekend with a goal glut.

Zimbabwean Takesure Chinyama bagged four as 1995 champions Pirates triumphed 5-0 in Soweto against the semi-professionals and students of Djabal from the Comoros Islands.

Pillars, semi-finalists four years ago, were almost as ruthless with a 5-1 whipping of Central African Republic visitors Olympique Real Bangui in Kano as Nafiu Ibrahim struck twice.

David Ochieng was another goal poacher to score twice in a preliminary round, first leg tie as Tusker came from behind on the Indian Ocean island nation of the Seychelles to win 4-1 against Saint Michel United.

Fifa Club World Cup semifinalists Al Ahly of Egypt start the defence of the Caf Champions League away to the winners of a preliminary tie between Saint Michel United of Seychelles or Tusker of Kenya.

Ahly are among nine winners of the premier African club competition included in the 2013 line-up and the draw for the three, two-leg qualifying rounds made behind closed doors in Cairo during the weekend was released Monday.

Zamalek of Egypt, Vita of DR Congo, Orlando Pirates of South Africa, Asante Kotoko of Ghana and Union Douala of Cameroon feature in the preliminary round and TP Mazembe of DRC, Esperance of Tunisia and Setif of Algeria got byes.