(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles football clubs St Michel United and Lightstars will participate in the next Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions in February 2016.

St Michel will play Ethiopians league champions Kedus Giorgis, while Lighstars will face Bidvest Wits from South Africa.

The first leg of the preliminary matches will take place from February 12-14 and the second leg between February 26-28.

Winners of the local Barclays first division league, St Michel qualified for the CAF Champions league. The team coming from the district of Anse Aux Pins in the east of main island Mahe will be making its 10^th appearance in the competition. 

St Michel is Seychelles most experienced club  in the CAF champions league participating for the 10th time (Patrick Joubert Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

In February, St Michel lost 3-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the second leg match of the same competition after a 1-1 draw in the first match at Stad Linite in Seychelles. St Michel went out of the CAF champions league 4-1 on aggregate.

Lightstars from Seychelles’ second-most populated island Praslin booked their first-ever ticket to the CAF Confederations Cup by winning the Intelvision Cup competition. They defeated Northern Dynamo last week 6-4 on a penalty shoot-out after the score was locked 2-2 at the end of overtime.

Every year football clubs from the Seychelles, a group of islands in the western Indian Ocean, qualify for the two CAF club competitions, the CAF Confederation cup and the CAF Champions league. The latter is likened to the prestigious UEFA Champions league in Europe with participants having to win their national premier division league competitions.

The Seychelles islands national football team will also be in action in March 2016. In an attempt to qualify for the African Nations Cup 2017 (CAN2017), the island nation will face Lesotho on home ground on March 26.