Brothers Union will make their Asian club competition debut when the National and Premier League champions host Nisa FC of Turkmenistan in the AFC Cup match in Dhaka on March 9.

Brothers, who have never competed in a competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), have been drawn in Group C also featuring Nijmeh FC of Lebanon. Both these foreign clubs toured Bangladesh last year to play their AFC Cup group matches against Muktijoddha Sangsad.

Federation Cup champions Muktijoddha, meanwhile, open their campaign this year against a stronger rival from the other side of the border when they meet Kolkata giants East Bengal in an away match in Group A on the same day.

Al Faisaly of Jordan and Nebitchi FC of Turkmenistan are the Group A teams.

Both Dhaka clubs are scheduled to play their home matches at the Bangabandhu National Stadium where football is due return from March 1.

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), however, wanted the Bangladesh Cricket Board to hand over the venue by this month to prepare the ground for the final stage of the Federation Cup and AFC Cup matches.

The local season's curtain raiser Federation Cup is scheduled to start on February 17 at the Kamlapur Stadium.

"We had a verbal agreement with the BCB that they would leave the BNS after the Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series so that we could prepare the ground in time. It will take at least two weeks to get the middle of the ground ready," said the BFF general secretary Anwarul Hoque Helal.

However, the BCB was looking forward to staging National Cricket League matches till the end of this month at the Big Bowl.

"If that happens, it would be impossible for us to stage the AFC Cup match on March 9 and also, we have to delay the start of the Federation Cup," added Helal.