Newly adopted CAF club tournaments' format adds quarterfinals

The new CAF club competitions’ format will include quarterfinals for the first time and have one less qualifying round, CAF announced on Monday.

During its meeting held on Tuesday, May 24, 2016 in Cairo, Egypt, the CAF Organising Committee for Interclub Competitions ruled on the new format of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.

New adopted format for Club Competitions https://t.co/hYDVCqo30p

— CAF (@CAF_Online) May 30, 2016

After the preliminary round, 32 teams will qualify for the 1/16th round in both competitions.

The winners of the 1/16th round in the CAF Champions League, will, after the drawing of lots, be divided into four groups of four teams each.

After a round-robin of matches (home and away), the first two of each group will qualify for the quarterfinals, which opens a new phase of knockout matches till the final. Clubs finishing top of each group will host the second leg of the quarterfinals.

For the CAF Confederation Cup, the 16 teams qualified after the 1/16th round will engage the losers from the 1/16th round of the CAF Champions League to decide on the 16 teams for the group stage. Thereafter, the format remains same as the CAF Champions League.

CAF now have 20 calendar dates for club competitions that will go from March to November for the CAF Champions League and until December for the CAF Confederation Cup.

CAF