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.[2] 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 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF uses the 2016–2020 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:[3][4][5]
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
2019–20: × 5
2018–19: × 4
2018: × 3
2017: × 2
2016: × 1
Teams
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, associations may abandon their domestic competitions and select the representatives in CAF club competitions.[6] Associations may register their representatives during the engagement window between 1 September and 20 October 2020. All engaged teams must respect the Club Licensing procedure and cooperate with their respective Associations, as non-licensed clubs would be refused participation.[7]
The following 51 teams from 39 associations entered the competition.
Associations are shown according to their 2016–2020 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score (in parentheses) indicated.
Associations eligible to enter two teams (Top 12 associations)
Angola (ANG): The 2019–20 Girabola and the 2019–20 Angola Cup were abandoned by the Angolan Football Federation due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Angola. Bravos do Maquis, who were at third place of the 2019–20 Girabola at the time of abandonment, and Sagrada Esperança, who were one of the two cup semi-finalists who had not yet qualified for African club competitions, will represent Angola in the 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup, since Interclube, who were the other cup semi-finalists who had not yet qualified for African club competitions, declined to enter.[9]
2019–20 Eswatini Premier League at the time of abandonment (table considered final), were supposed to represent Eswatini in the 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup.[19] However, the Eswatini Football Association was not able to confirm the engagement of Mbabane Swallows by the CAF deadline.[20]
Malawi (MWI): No team will represent Malawi in the 2020–21 CAF Champions League, since Blue Eagles, who were the 2019 FISD Challenge Cup winners, declined to enter.[31]
Zimbabwe (ZIM):Highlanders, who were the 2019 Cup of Zimbabwe winners, declined to enter. No team will represent Zimbabwe in the 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup.[41]
Schedule
The start of the competition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 1 September 2020, the CAF announced the new schedule.[7][42] On 10 September 2020, the CAF decided to further delay the preliminary round, originally scheduled for 20–22 November (first legs) and 27–29 November (second legs), and the first round, originally scheduled for 11–13 December (first legs) and 18–20 December (second legs).[43]
Schedule for 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup
Phase
Round
Draw date
First leg
Second leg
Qualifying
Preliminary round
9 November 2020
27–29 November 2020
4–6 December 2020
First round
22–23 December 2020
5–6 January 2021
Play-off round
8 January 2021
14 February 2021
21 February 2021
Group stage
Matchday 1
22 February 2021
10 March 2021
Matchday 2
17 March 2021
Matchday 3
4 April 2021
Matchday 4
11 April 2021
Matchday 5
21 April 2021
Matchday 6
28 April 2021
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
30 April 2021
16 May 2021
23 May 2021
Semi-finals
20 June 2021
27 June 2021
Final
10 July 2021
The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows.[44]
Original schedule for 2020–21 CAF Confederation Cup
^TAS Casablanca won on a walkover after GAMTEL withdrew from the second leg in Morocco citing financial constraints.[47]
^Namungo won on walkover after Al Rabita were disqualified by CAF due to violation of regulations from the club and the South Sudan Football Association.[48]
^Sagrada Esperança won on walkover after the Eswatini Football Association was not able to confirm the engagement of their representative in the CAF Confederation Cup by the CAF deadline.[49][50]
^Renaissance failed to appear for the first leg in N'Djamena following disputes between the Ministry of Youth and Sports in the country and the Chadian Football Federation, which prevented the club from playing the match in their home country. As a result, Renaissance were disqualified from the competition by CAF, and ES Sétif won on walkover.[51]
^Orlando Pirates won on a walkover after Sagrada Esperança withdrew from the second leg in South Africa citing health concerns caused due to the new COVID-19 variant.[52]
AS Kigali and KCCA could not be played after 2 of the 15 players from KCCA tested positive for COVID-19. Thus, KCCA were not able to name the required 15 players for holding the match, and subsequently, AS Kigali were awarded a technical 2–0 victory for the first leg by CAF in accordance with the regulations related to COVID-19.[53]
Play-off round
The 15 winners of the play-off round will advance to the group stage to join RS Berkane, who advanced directly to the group stage as the winners of the first round with the best CAF 5-year ranking following Gazelle withdrawal from the competition after being transferred from the Champions League.
The draw for the group stage was held on 22 February 2021, 13:00 GMT (15:00 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[54] The 16 teams, which consist of the 15 winners of the play-off round of qualifying and defending champions RS Berkane, 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 allocated to the positions in their group according to their pot:
† Winners of the play-off round, whose identity was not known at the time of draw.
In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The winners and runners-up of each group will 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):[2]
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;
The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the quarter-finals, the four group winners are seeded, and the four group runners-up are unseeded. The seeded teams are 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 can be drawn against each other.
In the draws for semi-finals, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals are held together before the quarter-finals are played, the identity of the quarter-final winners is 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 30 April 2021, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[55][56]
JS Kabylie
Ben Malango
Gabon[Note GAB] (Rank: 31 (1))
Kenya[Note KEN] (Rank: 15 (11))
Zimbabwe[Note ZIM] (Rank: 15 (11))