The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has adopted a new format for organizing club competitions.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the interclub competitions committee on May 24th, 2016. The two competitions; Confederations cup and champions league as announced by CAF President Issa Hayatou at the 38th CAF Ordinary General Assembly in Mexico City, will have 16 clubs at the group stage as from next year.
After the preliminary round, 32 teams will qualify for the round of 16 in both competitions.
The winners of the 16th finals in the 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 quarter-finals, 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 Confederation Cup, the 16 teams qualified after the 16th finals will engage the losers from the round of 16 of the 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.
