Pirates, the only South African club still alive in continental club competition, are into the second round with a date against Gabonese club CF Mounana already booked.
The Buccaneers fly out to Libreville on Friday afternoon for the first of the two-legged contest to be played at Stade Augustin Monédan de Sibang on Sunday (16h30), with the return leg scheduled for Orlando Stadium on the weekend of May 1-3.
Ironically, just like South Africa – which has experienced xenophobia-fuelled disturbances this week – Gabon has also been beset by vandalism in recent days, with buildings and cars burnt in the streets of Libreville following the death of opposition leader Andre Mba Obame on Sunday.
However, of significance is the fact that if Eric Tinkler gets past the hurdle posed by the French speaking Gabonese, they will go into the play-offs draw which pits the eight winners of the Confederations Cup against the eight teams that come out losers in the CAF Champions League second round.
Matches in that play-off round will be played on May 15-17 and June 5-7.
The eight winners of the play-offs will then be drawn into two groups of four, with the round robin matches at that stage starting on the weekend of June 26-28 and stretching to September 11-13.
With the domestic League season ending on May 9 and the curtain coming down with the Nedbank Cup final the following weekend, this essentially means Bucs could be left without a break between the end of this season and the start of the next campaign.
Having no off-season could ultimately prove damaging for Pirates next season as they will get drained by the effects of having a domestic league that doesn’t align to the CAF calendar.
The CAF calendar – just like most leagues on the continent – runs on a full calendar year from February to November due to weather reasons as football is a winter sport instead of the European calendar adopted by South Africa and a few other African countries.
Further complicating issues for Pirates is that Bafana Bafana will be playing their opening 2017 AFCON qualifier against Gambia on the weekend of June 12-14, which could actually mean that the club’s national team players like Oupa Manyisa will still have to play three official matches in June and have absolutely no free weekend.