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 Confederation Cup, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in the competition.[4] 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 2017 CAF Confederation Cup, 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:[5]
Location of teams of the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup. Italics: Teams transferred from the 2017 CAF Champions League Red: Preliminary round; Green: First Round; Purple: Play-off 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).[6][7]
The draw for the preliminary round and first round was held on 21 December 2016 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[8][9]
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).[4]
^ abFIFA suspended the Malian Football Federation on 17 March 2017.[10] As a result, both Djoliba and Onze Créateurs could not play the second leg, and their opponents Al-Masry and Rayon Sports won on walkover.[11]
^Club Africain won on walkover after RSLAF withdrew prior to the second leg.[12]
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 21 March 2017, 11:00 EET (UTC+2), at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[13][14] The winners of the Confederation Cup first round were drawn against the losers of the Champions League first round, with the teams from the Confederation Cup hosting the second leg.
The 16 winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held on 26 April 2017, 14:00 EET (UTC+2), at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[15][16][17] The 16 teams, all winners of the play-off round of qualifying, were drawn into four groups of four. The teams were seeded by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons (CAF 5-year ranking points shown in parentheses).[18]
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):[4]
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;
^ abHead-to-head results: Al-Hilal Al-Ubayyid 1–0 ZESCO United, ZESCO United 3–0 Al-Hilal Al-Ubayyid.
^FIFA suspended the Sudan Football Association on 7 July 2017.[19] As a result, Al-Hilal Al-Ubayyid could not play their final group match against ZESCO United, and the match was awarded as a 3–0 win to their opponents.[20] Initially, Al-Hilal Al-Ubayyid were disqualified from the CAF Confederation Cup,[21] but following the lifting of the suspension on 13 July,[22] they were reinstated to the competition, and advanced to the knockout stage instead of Recreativo do Libolo.[20]
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).[4]
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.[16]
