The 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2020–21 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th 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 secondary 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), under the current

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

title after the merger of

CAF Cup The CAF Cup was an annual competition organised by the CAF for domestic leagues runners-up of member associations who have not qualified to one of the two pre-existing CAF international club competitions the African Cup of Champions Clubs or t ...

and

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and w ...

. The winners of the 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2020–21 CAF Champions League in the

2021–22 CAF Super Cup The 2021 CAF Super Cup (officially the TotalEnergies CAF Super Cup 2021 for sponsorship reasons) was the 30th CAF Super Cup, an annual association football, football match in Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), between ...

RS Berkane Renaissance Sportive de Berkane () commonly referred to as Nahdat Berkane or RS Berkane for short, is a Moroccan professional football club based in Berkane, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football. Founded on 21 May 1938 a ...

were the defending champions, but were eliminated in 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 ...

Association team allocation

All 56 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Confederation Cup, 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 (plus 16 teams eliminated from the CAF Champions League which enter the play-off round) – although this level has never been reached. For the 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF uses the 2016–2020

, 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: *2019–20: × 5 *2018–19: × 4 *2018: × 3 *2017: × 2 *2016: × 1

Teams

Due to 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 ...

, associations may abandon their domestic competitions and select the representatives in CAF club competitions. Associations may register their representatives during the engagement window between 1 September and 20 October 2020. All engaged teams must respect the Club Licensing procedure and cooperate with their respective Associations, as non-licensed clubs would be refused participation. The following 51 teams from 39 associations entered the competition. *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 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 2016–2020 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score (in parentheses) indicated.'' A further 16 teams eliminated from the 2020–21 CAF Champions League enter the play-off round. ;Associations which did not enter a team * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ;Associations which did not enter a team initially, but had a team transferred from Champions League * (Rank: 31 ) * (Rank: 15 ) * (Rank: 15 ) ;Notes

Schedule

The start of the competition was delayed due to the

. On 1 September 2020, the CAF announced the new schedule. On 10 September 2020, the CAF decided to further delay the preliminary round, originally scheduled for 20–22 November (first legs) and 27–29 November (second legs), and the first round, originally scheduled for 11–13 December (first legs) and 18–20 December (second legs). The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows.

Qualifying rounds

Preliminary round

First round

Play-off round

Group stage

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

References

External links

CAFonline.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Confederation Cup 2020-21 2020–21 2 2 Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic