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HONG Kong's champion football club will face opposition from Macau, the Philippines or Brunei in the first round of next season's Asian Club Championship.

 The draws for the two Asian Football Confederation tournaments - the Club Championship and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup - were held in the territory yesterday and the Hong Kong Football Association are one of 29 entries in the 14th Club Championship and oneof 26 in the fifth Cup Winners' Cup.

 With Eastern set to win the league for the second successive year they seem certain to be Hong Kong's representatives in the Club Championship.

 If the Hong Kong champions get through the first round, their next opponents would be J.League champions Yomiuri Verdy, seeded into the second round. The first two rounds will be played home and away.

 The Hong Kong FA designate the Challenge Shield as the local qualifying tournament for the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and Eastern are the Shield holders, too, having beaten Instant-Dict in the final last December.

 If Eastern, as expected, go on to win the league, Instant-Dict will be offered the chance to represent the territory in next season's Cup Winners' Cup - and the club have already told the FA they would accept.

 In the Cup Winners' Cup, Hong Kong's representatives were drawn to meet the winners of a four-team qualifying group comprising of Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Pakistan.

 The winners of that home and away tie would play Japan's representatives, the Yokohama Marinos, who have been seeded into the quarter-finals.

 The draws for the countries are: Asian Club Championship - West region, first round: Kuwait v Qatar, Bahrain v Yemen, Lebanon v Jordan. Second round: Iran v the winners of qualifying tournament for five members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kuwait or Qatar v Oman, United Arab Emirates v Bahrain or Yemen, Lebanon or Jordan v Saudi Arabia. The four quarter-finalists play in a round-robin group at one venue in November-December to produce two teams for the semi-finals.

 East region, first round: The champions of a Southeast Asia qualifying tournament between Macau, the Philippines or Brunei v Hong Kong, South Korea v Malaysia, runners-up of South Asia qualifying round between Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and Pakistan v Thailand. Second round: Thai Farmers Bank (champions) v winners of South Asia qualifying group involving Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia qualifiers or Hong Kong v Yomiuri Verdy (Japan), Indonesia v South Korea or Malaysia, South Asia runners-up or Thailand v China. The four teams for the quarter-finals will play a round-robin at one venue in November, with two teams joining the two teams from the West Asia section in a finals tournament in January.

 Asian Cup Winners' Cup - West Region, first round: Bahrain v Yemen, Kuwait v Oman, Jordan v Lebanon. Second round: Saudi Arabia v Bahrain or Yemen, Kuwait or Oman v Qatar, UAE v Jordan or Lebanon, Commonwealth of Independent States representatives v Iran.

 East region, first round: Thailand v runners-up of South Asia qualifying round involving Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Pakistan, Malaysia v Brunei. Second round: Winners of South Asia qualifying round v Hong Kong, Vietnam v Thailand or runners-up of South Asia qualifying round, Malaysia or Brunei v Indonesia.



Hong Kong to face Cup qualifiers in first round