The 2019–20 CAF Champions League (officially the 2019–20 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons)[1] was the 56th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 24th edition under the current CAF Champions League title.
This season was to be the first to follow an August–to-May schedule, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017.[2] However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the semi-finals and final of the competition to be postponed until October and November 2020. Moreover, for the first time, the final was played as a single match at a venue pre-selected by CAF,[3] and was originally to be played at the Japoma Stadium in Douala, Cameroon.[4] However, during the suspension of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameroon decided to withdraw from hosting, and instead, the final was played in Egypt, at the Cairo International Stadium in Cairo.
Ahly won a record 9th title, defeating fellow Egyptian rivals Zamalek 2–1 in the final.[5]
This was the first time in the history of the CAF Champions League that the final was contested between two clubs from the same country.
Association team allocation
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.[6] As a result, theoretically a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
For the 2019–20 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2015–2019 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:[7][8][9]
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
2018–19 – 5
2018 – 4
2017 – 3
2016 – 2
2015 – 1
This was announced by the CAF on 4 June 2019, as using the previous scheme, it would be based on results from 2014 to 2018. The only change for the top 12 associations is that Tanzania is included while Ivory Coast is excluded.[10][11]
Teams
The following 61 teams from 49 associations entered the competition.
Three teams (in bold) received a bye to the first round.
Mali (MLI): For the second consecutive season, Mali were represented by Stade Malien, the 2018 Malian Cup winners, as the Malian Première Division and Malian Cup were not played in 2018–19.
Location of teams of the 2019–20 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 is as follows.[12]
On 24 November 2019, CAF made a change to all fixtures dates starting from the group stage matchday 4 to the final, due to rescheduling of the 2020 African Nations Championship from January/February to April. The quarter-finals draw date was also changed.[13]
Following the quarter-finals, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, the semi-finals, originally scheduled for 1–2 May (first legs) and 8–9 May (second legs), were postponed indefinitely on 11 April 2020,[14] and the final, originally scheduled for 29 May, was also postponed on 18 April 2020.[15] On 30 June 2020, the CAF Executive Committee proposed that the competition would resume with a Final Four format played as single matches in a host country to be decided.[16] However, these plans were later halted after the Cameroonian Football Federation withdrew from hosting the Final Four, and the CAF decided against hosting it in either Egypt or Morocco in the principle of fairness. On 3 August 2020, the CAF announced that the competition would resume in its original format with the semi-finals played on 25–26 September (first legs) and 2–3 October (second legs), and the final played on 16 or 17 October.[17] On 10 September 2020, the CAF announced that at the request of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, the semi-finals were rescheduled to 17–18 October (first legs) and 23–24 October (second legs), and the final to 6 November.[18] On 22 October 2020, the CAF announced that the semi-final second leg between Zamalek and Raja Casablanca, originally scheduled to be played on 24 October, was postponed to 1 November, due to Raja Casablanca being required by Moroccan authorities to self-isolate until 27 October after eight players testing positive for the COVID-19 virus, with the total number of cases increasing to fourteen the following day.[19] On 30 October 2020, the CAF announced that this match was further postponed to 4 November, the final postponed to 27 November.[20]
The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 21 July 2019 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[21][22]
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 was applied, and if still tied, extra time was not played, and the penalty shoot-out was used to determine the winner (Regulations III. 13 & 14).[6]
The draw for the group stage was held on 9 October 2019, 20:00 CAT (UTC+2), at the Hilton Pyramids Golf in Cairo, Egypt.[23] The 16 teams, all winners of the first 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). Each group contained one team from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4, and each team was drawn into one of the positions in their group.[24]
In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals of the knockout stage.
Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order (Regulations III. 20 & 21):[6]
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;
In the knockout stage, the quarter-finals and semi-finals were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then extra time was not played and the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out.
In the final, which was played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time was also not to be played and the winners would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.[6]
The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
In the draw for the quarter-finals, the four group winners were seeded, and the four group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group cannot be drawn against each other, while teams from the same association could be drawn against each other.
In the draws for semi-finals, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw.
Bracket
The bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage (quarter-finals and semi-finals), which was held on 5 February 2020, 20:00 CAT (UTC+2), at the Hilton Pyramids Golf in Cairo, Egypt.[25][26]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, all semi-final matches, originally scheduled for 1–2 May (first legs) and 8–9 May 2020 (second legs), were postponed.[14] The matches were later rescheduled for 17–18 October (first legs) and 23 October and 4 November 2020 (second legs).[18][20]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, the final, originally scheduled for 29 May 2020, 20:00 WAT, at the Japoma Stadium, Douala, Cameroon, was postponed until further notice.[4][15] In July, the Cameroonian Football Federation announced that they had withdrawn from hosting the final.[27] The CAF decided that the final would be played in Egypt if both semi-finalists from Egypt, Al-Ahly and Zamalek, reached the final, or in Morocco if both semi-finalists from Morocco, Raja Casablanca and Wydad Casablanca, reached the final. If one team from Egypt and one team from Morocco reached the final, it was initially decided that the final would be played in a neutral country,[17] but it was later decided that the final would then be played in either Egypt or Morocco, to be decided by a draw, which was held on 16 October 2020 in Casablanca, Morocco prior to the semi-final first legs, and the country drawn was Egypt.[28]
