The 2017 CAF Champions League (officially the 2017 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons)[1] was the 53rd edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 21st edition under the current CAF Champions League title.
Starting from this season, the group stage was expanded from eight to 16 teams, divided into four groups of four, and the knockout stage expanded from 4 to 8 teams.[2][3]
All 56 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in the competition.[5] As a result, theoretically a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
For the 2017 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2011–2015 CAF 5-year ranking, 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:[6]
Location of teams of the 2017 CAF Champions League. Red: Preliminary round; Green: First Round; Brown: Group A; Orange: Group B; Yellow: Group C; Blue: Group D.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows (matches scheduled in midweek in italics).[7][8]
The draw for the preliminary round and first round was held on 21 December 2016 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[9][10]
In the qualifying rounds, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still tied, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations III. 13 & 14).[5]
In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals of the knockout stage.
Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations III. 20 & 21):[5]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
^ abFIFA suspended the Sudan Football Association on 7 July 2017.[11] As a result, both Al-Hilal and Al-Merrikh could not play their final group matches against Ferroviário Beira and Étoile du Sahel respectively, and the matches were awarded as 3–0 wins to their opponents.[12]
In the knockout stage, the eight teams played a single-elimination tournament. Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still tied, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (Regulations III. 26 & 27).[5]
In the semi-finals, the four quarter-final winners played in two ties, with the order of legs decided by an additional draw held after the group stage draw.[13]
Wydad AC (2nd title)
Al Ahly
Taha Yassine Khenissi (7 goals)
