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2022–23 CAF Champions League
The 2022–23 CAF Champions League (officially the 2022–23 TotalEnergies CAF Champions League for sponsorship purposes)[1] was the 59th season of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the 27th under the current CAF Champions League title. Unlike the last three seasons, the final of this edition was played in a two-legged format as per the decision of CAF at the executive committee meeting on July 3 at Rabat, arising from a formal complaint made by Al Ahly to CAF over the choice of Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca as the venue for the 2022 final: despite the intention that the final be played at a neutral venue, the 2022 tournament culminated with the stadium being the home venue of their opponent, Wydad AC.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The winners, Al Ahly for the record-extending 11th title, automatically qualified for the 2023–24 CAF Champions League and earned the right to play against the winners of the 2022–23 CAF Confederation Cup in the 2023 CAF Super Cup along with the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.[8] Wydad AC were the defending champions, but they lost the final against Al Ahly. Association team allocationA total of 46 out of the 56 CAF member associations entered this season's CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in this season.[8] As a result, theoretically a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached. For this season of the tournament, CAF used the 2018–2022 CAF 5-year ranking, which calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs’ performance over those 5 years in CAF club competitions. The criteria for points are as follows:[9][10][11]
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
TeamsThe following 58 teams from 46 associations participated in this edition of the competition.
Associations are shown according to their 2018–2022 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score (in parentheses) indicated.
Notes:
ScheduleThe official competition schedule was released on 24 June 2022 on their website to prepare the qualified teams for the upcoming season.[12]
Qualifying roundsThe draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 9 August 2022 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[13][14][15] 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). First roundNotes:
Second roundThe 16 winners of the second round advanced to the group stage, while the 16 losers of the second round entered the CAF Confederation Cup playoff round.
Group stage  Cairo Casablanca Omdurman Location of teams of the 2022–23 CAF Champions League group stage.  Brown: Group A;  Red: Group B;  Orange: Group C;  Yellow: Group D.The draw for the group stage was held on 12 December 2022, 12:00 GMT (14:00 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[18] The 16 winners of the second 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 next to every team). Each group contained one team from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4, and each team was allocated to the positions in their group according to their pot.
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.
Group A
Source: CAF
Group B
Source: CAF Notes: Group C
Source: CAF
Group D
Source: CAF
Knockout stageThe mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
BracketThe bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final), which was held on 5 April 2023, 18:30 GMT (20:30 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[19]
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
FinalThe first leg was played on 4 June, and the second leg was played on 11 June 2023.
Al Ahly won 3–2 on aggregate.
Top goalscorers Team eliminated / inactive for this round.
See alsoReferences
External links |
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