Cooreman eyes Champs League spot

Cooreman takes charge of his first Kotoko match on Sunday

New Asante Kotoko coach Maurice Cooreman says qualification for the group stage of the Champions League is his number one priority for the club.

The 65-year-old Belgian took charge of the Ghanaian club last week, after leaving Nigerian club Enyimba.

"It's the first thing that I'll do here," he told BBC Sport.

"I was very close with Enyimba, [reaching] the semi-finals.

"Now I'll try to do it with Asante Kotoko to try to get to the group stage and then anything can happen."

Cooreman signed a two-year deal with the Porcupine Warriors, who missed out on qualification for the group stage of this year's competition.

"The Champions League is something special," Cooreman said.

"There are a lot of big teams in Africa playing in the competition. It's a tough competition now."

Cooreman's first task in practice will be to get the Ghanaian champions off to a winning start in the country's Premier League against local rivals King Faisal on Sunday.

"The first match is a very important one, it doesn't matter who we are playing against.

"The important thing is to win that first match so the confidence is there and then we can have a very good season."