2019–20 CAF Champions League
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The 2019–20 CAF Champions League (officially the 2019–20 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 56th edition of
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
's premier club
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
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 24th 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 was to be the first to follow an August–to-May schedule, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017. However, the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
caused the semi-finals and final of the competition to be postponed until October and November 2020. Moreover, for the first time, 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 played as a single match at a venue pre-selected by CAF, and was originally to be played at the Japoma Stadium in
Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...
, Cameroon. However, during the suspension of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameroon decided to withdraw from hosting, and instead, the final was played in Egypt, at the
Cairo International Stadium The Cairo International Stadium (), formerly known as Nasser Stadium, is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. The architect of the stadium is the German Werner March, who designed the Olympiastadion (Berli ...
in
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. Ahly won a record-extending 9th title, defeating fellow Egyptian rivals
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 ...
2–1 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 ...
. As winners of the 2019–20 CAF Champions League, Ahly qualified for the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup in
Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
, and earned the right to play against the winners of the
2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup The 2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2019–20 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under t ...
in the 2020–21 CAF Super Cup. This was the first time in the history of the CAF Champions League that the final was contested between two clubs from the same country.


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 2019–20 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2015–2019
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. ...
, 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: *2018–19 – 5 *2018 – 4 *2017 – 3 *2016 – 2 *2015 – 1 This was announced by the CAF on 4 June 2019, as using the previous scheme, it would be based on results from 2014 to 2018. The only change for the top 12 associations is that Tanzania is included while Ivory Coast is excluded.


Teams

The following 61 teams from 49 associations entered the competition. *Three 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 58 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 2015–2019 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 is as follows. On 24 November 2019, CAF made a change to all fixtures dates starting from the group stage matchday 4 to the final, due to rescheduling of the
2020 African Nations Championship The 2020 African Nations Championship, known as CHAN 2020 for short and the TotalEnergies, Total African Nations Championship for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes, was the 6th edition of the biennial association football tournament org ...
from January/February to April. The quarter-finals draw date was also changed. Following the quarter-finals, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Africa The COVID-19 pandemic pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Africa on 14 February 2020, with the first confirmed case announced in COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt, Egypt. The first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced in COVID-19 ...
, the semi-finals, originally scheduled for 1–2 May (first legs) and 8–9 May (second legs), were postponed indefinitely on 11 April 2020, and the final, originally scheduled for 29 May, was also postponed on 18 April 2020. On 30 June 2020, the CAF Executive Committee proposed that the competition would resume with a Final Four format played as single matches in a host country to be decided. However, these plans were later halted after the
Cameroonian Football Federation The Cameroonian Football Federation () is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Cameroon. It is known as FECAFOOT. On 11 December 2021, the acting-president of FECAFOOT, former Cameroonian international striker Samuel Eto'o, was e ...
withdrew from hosting the Final Four, and the CAF decided against hosting it in either Egypt or Morocco in the principle of fairness. On 3 August 2020, the CAF announced that the competition would resume in its original format with the semi-finals played on 25–26 September (first legs) and 2–3 October (second legs), and the final played on 16 or 17 October. On 10 September 2020, the CAF announced that at the request of the
Royal Moroccan Football Federation The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (; Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵙⴷⴰⵡⵉⵜ ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏⵜ ⵜⴰⵎⵖⵔⴰⴱⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵜⵡⵊⴰ ⵏ ⵓⴹⴰⵔ) is the governing body of football in Morocco. It was established in 1956. It beca ...
, the semi-finals were rescheduled to 17–18 October (first legs) and 23–24 October (second legs), and the final to 6 November. On 22 October 2020, the CAF announced that the semi-final second leg between
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 ...
and
Raja Casablanca Raja Club Athletic, widely known as Raja Casablanca or simply Raja, is a Football team, football club based in Casablanca, Morocco, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football league system, Moroccan football. Founded on 20 M ...
, originally scheduled to be played on 24 October, was postponed to 1 November, due to Raja Casablanca being required by Moroccan authorities to self-isolate until 27 October after eight players testing positive for the
COVID-19 virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the provisional name 2019 novel coro ...
, with the total number of cases increasing to fourteen the following day. On 30 October 2020, the CAF announced that this match was further postponed to 4 November, the final postponed to 27 November.


Qualifying rounds


Preliminary round


First round


Group stage

In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance 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


See also

*
2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup The 2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2019–20 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under t ...
* 2020–21 CAF Super Cup


Notes


References


External links


Total CAF Champions League
CAFonline.com
CAF Total Champions League 2019/20
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Champions League 2019-20 1 1 Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...