The 2018–19 CAF Champions League (officially the 2018–19 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th edition of

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's premier club

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tournament organized by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF), and the 23rd edition under the current

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

title. This season followed a transitional calendar which allows the CAF club competitions to switch from a February-to-November schedule to an August–to-May schedule, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017. It began in December 2018, right after the 2018 season had finished, and ended in May 2019, before the

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total SE, Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's associati ...

(which had been switched from a January/February to a June/July date). The next season then started after the Africa Cup of Nations and followed the new calendar. Defending champions

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French language, 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 mo ...

won a second consecutive title, being declared the winners after their second leg match against

Wydad AC Wydad Athletic Club (, ), often known outside Morocco as Wydad Casablanca, is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca. Wydad AC is best known for its professional Association football, football team that competes in Botola, the top tier of th ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

was abandoned. As winners of the 2018–19 CAF Champions League, Espérance de Tunis qualified for the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club association football, fo ...

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, and earned the right to play against the winners of the 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup,

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

, in the 2020 CAF Super Cup.

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 2018–19 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2013–2017

, 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: *2017 – 5 *2016 – 4 *2015 – 3 *2014 – 2 *2013 – 1

Teams

The following 57 teams from 46 associations entered the competition. *For this season, the title holders (in ''bold italics'') receive a bye to the

group stage 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 ...

. *Four teams (in bold) received a bye to the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. *The other 52 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 ...

. ''Associations are shown according to their 2013–2017 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated.'' ;Notes ;Associations which did not enter a team * * * * * * * * * *

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (matches scheduled in midweek in ''italics''). 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.

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 a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the

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

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top goalscorers

References

External links

Total CAF Champions League 2018/2019
CAFonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Champions League 2018-19 1 1

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...