The 2024–25 CAF Champions League, officially the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons,[1] is the 61st season of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the 29th under the CAF Champions League title.
| TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2024–2025 | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Dates | Qualification: 16 August – 22 September 2024 Competition proper: October 2024 – May 2025 |
| Teams | 59 (from 47 associations) |
The winners of this edition of the competition will automatically qualify for the group stage of its next edition, earn the right to play against the winners of the 2024–25 CAF Confederation Cup in the 2025 CAF Super Cup and the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.[2]
Association team allocation
editAll 54 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to the CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in the competition.[2] As a result, a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
For this season's edition, CAF used the 2019–2024 CAF 5-year ranking, which calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs performance over the 5 years in the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. The criteria for the points are as follows:[3][4][5]
| CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Winners | 6 points | 5 points |
| Runners-up | 5 points | 4 points |
| Losing semi-finalists | 4 points | 3 points |
| Losing quarter-finalists | 3 points | 2 points |
| 3rd place in groups | 2 points | 1 point |
| 4th place in groups | 1 point | 0.5 point |
The points were multiplied by a coefficient according to the season as follows:
- 2023–24: × 5
- 2022–23: × 4
- 2021–22: × 3
- 2020–21: × 2
- 2019–20: × 1
Teams
editThe following 59 teams from 47 associations entered the competition.
- Bold received a bye to the second round.
- The other teams entered the first round.
Associations are shown according to their CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score (in parentheses) indicated.
- Associations which did not enter a team
Notes
- ^ The Libyan Premier League was not finished by the CAF deadline for associations to submit teams participating in this season's CAF competitions. CAF approved a request made by the Libyan Football Federation to submit the names of participating teams in the competition following the end of the season by 22 July 2024, and as a result, Libyan teams were listed as Libya 1 and Libya 2 during the draw; as their identity was still unknown by the time of the draw.[6]
Schedule
editThe schedule of the qualifying tournament is as follows.
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying rounds | First round | 11 July 2024[7] | 16–18 August 2024 | 23–25 August 2024 |
| Second round | 13–15 September 2024 | 20–22 September 2024 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | TBA 2024 | October 2024 | |
| Matchday 2 | October 2024 | |||
| Matchday 3 | November 2024 | |||
| Matchday 4 | November 2024 | |||
| Matchday 5 | December 2024 | |||
| Matchday 6 | December 2024 | |||
| Knockout stage | Quarter-finals | TBA 2025 | March 2025 | |
| Semi-finals | April 2025 | |||
| Final | May 2025 | |||
Qualifying rounds
editThe draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 11 July 2024, 12:00 GMT (15:00 local time, UTC+3), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[8][9]
In the qualifying rounds, each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score is tied after the second leg, the away goals rule is applied, and if still tied, extra time is not played, and a penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner (Regulations III. 13 & 14).
First round
editNotes:
- ^ Djoliba won on a walkover after Red Star de Bangui withdrew from the competition citing financial reasons.
Second round
editThe 16 winners of the second round will advance to the group stage.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Total, Title Sponsor of the Africa Cup of Nations and Partner of African Football". TotalEnergies. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ^ a b "CAF Champions League regulations" (PDF). CAFOnline.com. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ "16 Clubs for Group Phase of CC and CL effective 2017". CAFOnline.com. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ "New adopted format for Club Competitions". CAFOnline.com. 30 May 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
- ^ "CAF disowns club ranking published by some websites". CAFOnline.com. 9 June 2011. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^ "في الجول يكشف سبب عدم تواجد أسماء لفرق ليبية في قرعة دوري أبطال إفريقيا والكونفدرالية" [FilGoal reveals why Libyan teams were unnamed in CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup draw]. FilGoal (in Arabic). 11 July 2024. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "CAF to conduct Preliminary Draw of 2024/25 CAF Interclub season on Thursday". CAFOnline.com. 10 July 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
- ^ "CAF to conduct Preliminary Draw of 2024/25 CAF Interclub season on Thursday". Confederation of African Football. 10 July 2024.
- ^ "New Champions League season kicks off with high-stakes preliminary round matches". Confederation of African Football. 11 July 2024. Retrieved 12 July 2024.