The Other, Other Champions League

By: Ian Rose | April 20th, 2008

As UEFA prepares for its first big week of semifinals (both in the Champions League and UEFA Cup), and the Copa Libertadores moves on to the knockouts, here’s a reminder that there is, in fact, continental football going on right now elsewhere in the world. Specifically, in Africa, where the CAF Champions League is down to the final 16. Since we now have our first-ever African club represented on The Offside, it’s time to take a look at Africa’s premier club competition.

This is the twelfth edition of the CAF CL, which replaced the African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1997. It works a little bit differently from the UEFA version, with 58 teams entering the competition. 52 of these enter in the single round of qualifying, and the 26 winners go on to the Round of 32, joined by the final six. Then it’s two rounds of knockouts to boil the field down to eight. But then, instead of a simple quarterfinal round, CAF has made the rather odd choice of a quarterfinal group stage, with the eight survivors split into two groups, and the top two sides from each group moving on to the semis. As pointless as many people find the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, I’d love to see how this format would go over in Europe. But, that’s one of the great things about football – all the tournaments in the world have a little different way of arranging things.

Anyway, we’re down to the last sixteen in Africa, with some surprises and some very familiar faces. Both Zamalek and Ahly are here from Egypt, the two most successful clubs both within their country and in this competition. Going back through the Cup of Champions days, each has won their continental cup five times, and between them, they’ve won four of the last seven. Also here is last year’s winner, Etoile de Sahel from Tunisia. In fact, all four of last year’s semifinalists have made it this far again. More of a surprise are teams like Morocco’s Olympique Khouribga, making their first appearance in a CAF CL, and Tunisia’s other entrant, Club Africain, who made the group stage in the first CL back in 1997, and never since.

The round of 16 gets underway Friday, with the second leg in early May. Then they’ll move on to that group stage. Zamalek just barely made it through the past round, winning on penalties, and so some of the smaller clubs might think there’s a chance to upset the big boys and have a chance at the championship of all Africa.