North Africa is once again in line for a clean sweep of African club competitions as Esperance of Tunisia prepare to tackle Hearts of Oak of Ghana for the Champions League title.

Esperance host the first leg Saturday at the 45,000-seat Al-Menzah Stadium in Tunis with the return match on December 17 at the slightly smaller National Stadium in Accra.

Clubs from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have dominated the Champions League (formerly Cup) since the mid-1980s, winning 14 of 16 finals with Orlando Pirates of South Africa and ASEC of Ivory Coast the only intruders.

Not content with a virtual monopoly of the premier Pan-African club event, the Maghreb nations also started hoisting the Cup Winners Cup and CAF Cup regularly.

The first clean sweep came in 1996 through victories by Zamalek and Arab Contractors of Egypt and Kawkab Marrakech of Morocco and Raja Casablanca of Morocco, Etoile Sahel of Tunisia and Esperance repeated the feat a year later.

ASEC and fellow Ivorians Africa Sports prevented North African hat-tricks in the last two years, but only Hearts of Oak appear to stand in the way this time.

The CAF Cup final involves JS Kabylie of Algeria and Ismailia of Egypt and Zamalek of Egypt look set to raise the Cup Winners Cup after building a 4-1 first-leg lead over Canon Yaounde of Cameroon last weekend.

Esperance are marginal favourites despite snatching defeat from the jaws of victory last year when failing on penalties after two dour goalless draws with Raja Casablanca.

The Moroccans played most of the second leg in Tunisia with 10 men and many Esperance supporters wept publicly after struggling to accept that the Blood and Gold had failed.

Most of the team that came so close should be back, including veteran captain and goalkeeper Chokri al-Ouaer, defenders Tarek Thabet and Radhi Jaidi, midfielder Sirajeddine Chihi and Maher Kanzari and striker Ali Zitouni.

Coach Youssef Zouaoui also gets another chance having been recalled midway through the 2000 competition after briefly losing his post to Toni Piechniczek from Poland.

Hearts of Oak reached two previous finals before some of the present squad were born - losing 4-2 on aggregate to Hafia of Guinea in 1977 and 5-3 on penalties to Union Douala of Cameroon two years later.

The Phobians came close to a third appearance two years ago, finishing second behind group winners Dynamos of Zimbabwe on goal difference, and have been rewarded for their faith in coach Jones Attuquayefio.

His consistently successful guidance of Hearts, who this month completed a second successive domestic double, has been acknowledged with the national senior squad also falling under his control.

Emmanuel Kuffour is Hearts danger man having scored seven goals this year in the Champions League, making him the leading scorer with Africa Sports pair Issoufou Alhassane and Fadel Keita.

But the first leg is more likely to be a test of Hearts' defensive resolve with goalkeeper Sammy Adjei almost certainly getting numerous opportunites to recapture the sparking form he displayed during the Ghana Cup final.