CAF Confederation Cup Fixtures, Results & Standings

CAF Confederation Cup is a men’s continental club football cup for teams from across Africa, organised by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF). It occupies an important place below the CAF Champions League in the continent’s club-competition structure, giving domestic cup winners and high-ranking league clubs a route to international football and continental silverware.

Purpose and origins

Established in 2004, the competition was created through the merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners’ Cup. That merger brought together two earlier continental competitions in a single tournament designed to broaden access to elite African club football. Rather than serving only the continent’s most dominant league champions, the Confederation Cup provides a platform for clubs that have earned qualification through domestic cup success or strong league finishes.

CAF governs the tournament, determines its entry requirements and regulations, and oversees the draws and match programme. The competition’s continental scope means that clubs from different national football systems meet in a common format, creating a demanding test of squad depth, travel management and performance over a long season.

How clubs qualify

The principal route into the competition is through domestic cup victory. CAF member associations can generally enter the winners of their national cup competitions, allowing clubs that may not have won their league to represent their country on the continental stage. Under the allocation structure used for the leading-ranked associations, an additional place is available to the third-placed team in the national league.

Qualification is not limited to clubs entering directly from domestic competitions. Teams eliminated in the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League can move into the Confederation Cup’s final qualifying phase. This pathway links the two major CAF club competitions and gives Champions League entrants a further opportunity to continue their continental campaign after elimination.

Competition format

The tournament uses a hybrid structure, combining two-legged qualifying ties, group-stage football and a knockout phase. The qualifying rounds are played over home-and-away matches and reduce the initial field to 16 clubs. These ties place a premium on managing both legs: a team must protect its position across two fixtures rather than relying on a single performance.

The 16 clubs reaching the group stage are drawn into four groups of four. Each team plays the other clubs in its group in home-and-away round-robin matches. A win is worth three points, a draw one point and a defeat no points. Clubs are seeded for the draw according to their recent record in CAF competitions, with the CAF five-year ranking used to help distribute teams between the seeding pots.

The top two teams in each group progress to the quarter-finals. The competition then returns to two-legged knockout football, continuing through the semi-finals before the final. Pairings and final-match arrangements can be set by the regulations for the relevant edition, so the precise structure of the last tie should be read in the context of that season rather than assumed to be permanent.

Standings and tie-break rules

Group positions are decided first by points. When teams are level, CAF regulations apply head-to-head criteria before moving to wider measures such as goal difference and goals scored. The exact sequence and any additional criteria can differ between editions, making the official regulations for the relevant season decisive when a group is closely contested.

In the knockout rounds, the aggregate score across the two legs determines which club advances. Where an aggregate tie-break is required, recent editions have used provisions concerning away goals, with penalties used if the tie remains unresolved. The treatment of extra time and the precise procedure can vary according to the round and the regulations in force, particularly where a final is staged as a single match.

Calendar and sporting stakes

The CAF Confederation Cup normally follows an annual continental cycle. Preliminary rounds generally begin in the late summer, often during August or September, while the group stage is played during the subsequent winter period. The knockout phase usually leads to a final in the spring, commonly in May or June, although dates may shift to accommodate the wider African football calendar and international scheduling.

Winning the competition brings more than a trophy. The champion earns continental prestige, secures a place in the following edition under the applicable qualification rules, and gains entry to the CAF Super Cup. That match pits the Confederation Cup winner against the CAF Champions League winner in a direct contest for another major African club honour.

For supporters and clubs, the tournament’s distinctive value lies in its breadth. It connects domestic cup football with the continental game, rewards clubs outside the narrow group of established Champions League powers, and offers a demanding progression from preliminary ties to group competition and decisive knockout matches. The competition records presented on this page cover the seasons from 2017 through 2025, providing a statistical view of this important part of African club football.