The 2018 CAF Champions League (officially the 2018 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 54th edition of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 22nd edition under the current CAF Champions League title.

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to most of the commo ...

won the title for the third time, defeating

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in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, and qualified as the CAF representative at the

2018 FIFA Club World Cup The 2018 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2018 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between ...

in the United Arab Emirates, and also earned the right to play against the winners of the

2018 CAF Confederation Cup The 2018 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2018 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under the curre ...

Raja Casablanca Raja Club Athletic ( ar, نادي الرجاء الرياضي, Nādī ar-Rajāʾ ar-Riyāḍī, zgh, ⴰⵙⵔⵉⵔ ⵏ ⵕⴰⵊⴰ ⴰⵎⴰⵏⵓⵏ), commonly referred to as Raja CA, Raja Casablanca or simply RCA is a professional footb ...

, in the

2019 CAF Super Cup The 2019 CAF Super Cup (officially the 2019 Total CAF Super Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 27th CAF Super Cup, an annual football match in Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), between the winners of the previous s ...

Wydad AC Wydad Athletic Club ( ar, نادي الوداد الرياضي, ) commonly referred to as Wydad AC and known as Wydad, or simply as WAC, is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca. Wydad AC is best known for its professional football team that ...

were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by

ES Sétif Entente Sportive Sétifienne ( ar, الوفاق الرياضي السطايفي), known as Entente de Sétif, commonly referred to as ES Sétif or ESS for short, is an Algerian professional football club based in Sétif. The club was founded in ...

Association team allocation

All 56 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their

CAF 5-Year Ranking The CAF 5-Year Ranking system is used by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to determine the number of clubs that each member association may enter its club football competitions; the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. ...

eligible to enter two teams in the competition. As a result, theoretically a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached. For the 2018 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2012–2016

, which calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs’ performance over those 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. The criteria for points are the following: The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows: *2016 – 5 *2015 – 4 *2014 – 3 *2013 – 2 *2012 – 1

Teams

The following 59 teams from 47 associations entered the competition: *Teams in bold received a bye to the first round. *The other teams entered the

preliminary round A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. This was the second highest number of teams in the history of CAF Champions League. The highest number was recorded in 2007 where 60 teams entered. ''Associations are shown according to their 2012–2016 CAF 5-Year Ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated.'' ;Notes ;Associations which did not enter a team * Cape Verde * Chad *

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

* Eritrea *

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

* Réunion * São Tomé and Príncipe * Sierra Leone *

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (matches scheduled in midweek in ''italics''). The regulations were modified with an additional draw before the quarter-finals. Effective from the Champions League group stage, weekend matches were played on Fridays and Saturdays while midweek matches were played on Tuesdays, with some exceptions. Kick-off times were also fixed at 13:00 (Saturdays and Tuesdays only), 16:00 and 19:00

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

Qualifying rounds

Preliminary round

First round

Group stage

In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the

quarter-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the knockout stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top goalscorers

Prize money

In 2018, the fixed amount of prize money paid to the clubs is as follows: Note: National associations receive an additional equivalent share of 5% for each amount awarded to clubs.

References

External links

22nd Edition Of Total CAF Champions League
CAFonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Champions League 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...