CAF Confederation Cup

CAF Confederation Cup - an annual continental club competition organised by the Confederation of African Football and generally regarded as CAF’s second-tier men’s club tournament below the CAF Champions League. Regulations: clubs qualify via their member association’s sporting quotas, typically including the domestic cup winner, with higher-ranked associations commonly receiving an additional entry, substitution rules apply if an originally eligible club cannot be admitted, and there is a mechanism for clubs eliminated from the CAF Champions League qualifiers to enter an additional Confederation Cup qualifying round; the competition starts with home-and-away knockout qualifying ties, decided on aggregate, with the away-goals rule applied and then penalties if still level. The group stage features 16 teams split into 4 groups of 4 playing a double round-robin, points are awarded 3-1-0, and tie-breakers prioritise head-to-head criteria in a defined order, for two-team ties starting with head-to-head points, then head-to-head goal difference, then head-to-head away goals, followed by overall group goal difference and goals scored, with drawing of lots as a last resort; for multi-team ties, a head-to-head mini-league sequence is applied before overall group criteria and, if required, lots. Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals, the knockout phase is played in home-and-away ties, and CAF confirms season-specific pairing constraints and the final format, with the winner qualifying for the CAF Super Cup.