Posted by The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee has made changes to the format of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup, starting this year.
The changes which was done at a CAF Executive Committee meeting held on Friday, June 7 in the newly built headquarters of the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football (“FRMF”) in Rabat saw CAF scarp off the additional second preliminary or the playoff round of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup.
“The Executive Committee approved the cancellation of the additional second preliminary of the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup,” a statement on CAF’s website read.
“This means that the 16 winning Clubs of the Second Preliminary round will qualify for the Group Stage of both the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup 2023-2024 season,” the statement added.
This means that teams will now go through two qualifying rounds instead of the previous three rounds to reach the group stages of the CAF Confederation Cup.
With the cancellation of the playoff stage, the 16 winning clubs of the second qualifying round will qualify to the Group Stages, just like the CAF Champions league.
The new format which will take effect from the 2023/24 football season also means that the 16 losing teams from the second qualifying round of the CAF Champions League will no longer drop to the CAF Confederation Cup.
Meanwhile, the first qualifying round of the two prestigious CAF Competitions will be played from August 18-27 and the second qualifying round is scheduled for September 15 to October 1.
The group stages of the two competitions will kick off in the opening week of December.