Tourney Name: | CAF Confederation Cup |
Year: | 2018–19 |
Other Titles: | 2018–19 Total CAF Confederation Cup |
Num Teams: | 55+15 |
Associations: | 45 |
Champion Other: | Zamalek |
Count: | 1 |
Second Other: | RS Berkane |
Matches: | 167 |
Goals: | 376 |
Prevseason: | 2018 |
Nextseason: | 2019–20 |
The 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2018–19 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons)[1] was the 16th edition of Africa's secondary club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), under the current CAF Confederation Cup title after the merger of CAF Cup and African Cup Winners' Cup.
This season follows a transitional calendar which allows the CAF club competitions to switch from a February-to-November schedule to an August–to-May schedule, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017.[2] It started in December 2018, right after the 2018 season has finished, and concluded in May 2019, before the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (which has been switched from January/February to June/July).[3]
Zamalek won the title for the first time, defeating RS Berkane in the final 5–3 on penalties after being tied 1–1 on aggregate, and earned the right to play against the winners of the 2018–19 CAF Champions League in the 2020 CAF Super Cup.[4]
Raja Casablanca were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.
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.[4] 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 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF uses the 2013–2017 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:[5] [6] [7]
CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | ||
---|---|---|---|
Winners | 6 points | 5 points | |
Runners-up | 5 points | 4 points | |
Losing semi-finalists | 4 points | 3 points | |
Losing quarter-finalists (from 2017) | 3 points | 2 points | |
3rd place in groups | 2 points | 1 point | |
4th place in groups | 1 point | 0.5 point |
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
The following 55 teams from 43 associations entered the competition.
Associations are shown according to their 2013–2017 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated.[8]
A further 15 teams (one fewer than usual) eliminated from the 2018–19 CAF Champions League enter the play-off round.
ASC Diaraf | Ittihad Tanger | Coton Sport | ZESCO United | African Stars | |
Al-Ahly Benghazi | Gor Mahia | Nkana | Jimma Aba Jifar | Vipers | |
Stade Malien | Bantu | Al-Hilal | Al-Nasr | AS Otohô |
The schedule of the competition is as follows (matches scheduled in midweek in italics).[10] Effective from the Confederation Cup group stage, weekend matches are played on Sundays while midweek matches are played on Wednesdays, with some exceptions. Kick-off times are also fixed at 13:00, 16:00 and 19:00 GMT.[11]
Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
---|---|---|---|---|
Qualifying | Preliminary round | 3 November 2018 (Rabat, Morocco)[12] | 27–28 November 2018 | 4–5 December 2018 |
First round | 14–16 December 2018 | 21–23 December 2018 | ||
Play-off round | 28 December 2018 (Cairo, Egypt)[13] | 11–13 January 2019 | 18–20 January 2019 | |
Group stage | Matchday 1 | 21 January 2019 (Cairo, Egypt) | 3 February 2019 | |
Matchday 2 | 13 February 2019 | |||
Matchday 3 | 24 February 2019 | |||
Matchday 4 | 3 March 2019 | |||
Matchday 5 | 10 March 2019 | |||
Matchday 6 | 17 March 2019 | |||
Knockout stage | Quarter-finals | 20 March 2019 (Cairo, Egypt)[14] | 7 April 2019 | 14 April 2019 |
Semi-finals | 28 April 2019 | 5 May 2019 | ||
Final | 19 May 2019 | 26 May 2019 |
See main article: 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup qualifying rounds.
See main article: 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup group stage. 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.
See main article: 2018–19 CAF Confederation Cup knockout stage.
See main article: 2019 CAF Confederation Cup Final.
Rank | Player | Team |    |    | Total | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Waleed Al-Shoala | Al-Hilal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||||||
2 | Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba | RS Berkane | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
3 | Mouhcine Iajour | Raja Casablanca | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||
Jacques Tuyisenge | Gor Mahia | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
5 | Issoufou Dayo | RS Berkane | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
Ibrahim Hassan | Zamalek | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||
Lazarous Kambole | ZESCO United | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Ronald Kampamba | Nkana | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||
Alaeddine Marzouki | CS Sfaxien | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Freddy Tshimenga | Nkana | 1 | 1 | 1 |