 | |
| Organiser(s) | UAFA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1981; 44 years ago (1981) |
| Region | Arab world |
| Teams | 37 |
| Current champions |  Al-Nassr(1st title) |
| Most championships |  Al-Rasheed Espérance de Tunis(3 titles each) |
| Website | uafa-ac.com |
 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup | |
TheArab Club Champions Cup (Arabic:كأس العرب للأندية الأبطال,French:Ligue des Champions Arabe)[1] is a clubfootball competition organised by theUnion of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by top clubs from theArab world. The tournament is contested by a total of 37 teams fromAsia andAfrica.
Founded in 1981, the tournament was held alongside theArab Cup Winners' Cup and theArab Super Cup throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, until the Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup were merged with the Champions Cup in 2002. The tournament's first champions wereIraqi clubAl-Shorta, who defeatedLebanese sideNejmeh in the final over two legs in 1982.[2]
Saudi Arabian clubs have accumulated the most victories, with nine wins. The title has been won by 20 clubs, eight of which have won the title more than once. Since the tournament was merged with the Cup Winners' Cup, onlyES Sétif ofAlgeria have managed consecutive wins, successfully defending their title in 2008. Iraqi clubAl-Rasheed andTunisian sideEspérance de Tunis share the record for most titles, with three each. The reigning champions areAl-Nassr of Saudi Arabia, who won their first title in2023.
The next two editions of the tournament will be held in 2027 (from 21 July to 7 August) and in 2029 (from 25 July to 11 August).[3]
| Season | Winners |
|---|---|
| Arab Club Champions Cup | |
| 1981–82 |  Al-Shorta |
| 1984 | Al-Ettifaq |
| 1985 | Al-Rasheed |
| 1986 | Al-Rasheed (2) |
| 1987 | Al-Rasheed (3) |
| 1988 | Al-Ettifaq (2) |
| 1989 |  Wydad Casablanca |
| 1990 | Cancelled |
| 1992 | Al-Shabab |
| 1993 | Espérance de Tunis |
| 1994 | Al-Hilal |
| 1995 | Al-Hilal (2) |
| 1996 |  Al Ahly |
| 1997 | Club Africain |
| 1998 |  WA Tlemcen |
| 1999 | Al-Shabab (2) |
| 2000 | Club Sfaxien |
| 2001 |  Al-Sadd |
| Arab Unified Club Championship | |
| 2002 | Al-Ahli Saudi |
| 2003 | Zamalek |
| Arab Champions League | |
| 2003–04 | Club Sfaxien (2) |
| 2004–05 | Al-Ittihad Jeddah |
| 2005–06 | Raja Casablanca |
| 2006–07 | ES Sétif |
| 2007–08 | ES Sétif (2) |
| 2008–09 | Espérance de Tunis (2) |
| UAFA Club Cup | |
| 2012–13 | USM Alger |
| Arab Club Championship | |
| 2017 | Espérance de Tunis (3) |
| Arab Club Champions Cup | |
| 2018–19 | Étoile du Sahel |
| 2019–20 | Raja Casablanca (2) |
| 2023 | Al-Nassr |
TheUnion of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) decided to create a competition for champions of Arab countries after the end of the 1979–80 season.[4] Domestic champions from UAFA's member nations were invited to compete, but after several withdrawals, only three teams fromIraq,Lebanon andJordan ended up participating.[5]The competition kicked off on 19 June 1981 with Lebanese championsNejmeh beating Jordanian championsAl-Ahli 2–1.[6][7] Nejmeh's Jamal Al-Khatib was the scorer of the first Arab Club Champions Cup goal.[8] Nejmeh and Al-Shorta competed in the inaugural final in February 1982, with Al-Shorta winning 4–2 on aggregate atAl-Shaab Stadium inBaghdad to be crowned the first champions of theArab world.[9]
The tournament was not held the following year but returned in1984 in around-robin format, andAl-Ettifaq earned the first title for aSaudi Arabian club that year.[10] With the number of participants increasing every year, UAFA introduced preliminary qualifying rounds that preceded the final round-robin tournament, before they changed the format of the final tournament in1987 to one that consisted of a group stage followed by a knockout stage.[11] UAFA also started to allow countries to have more than one participant in 1987, with two Saudi Arabian clubs (Al-Ittihad andAl-Hilal) and two Iraqi clubs (Al-Rasheed andAl-Jaish) competing.[12] Al-Rasheed of Iraq dominated the competition during these years, becoming the first team to win three consecutive championships in1985,1986 and1987, while Al-Ettifaq won their title back in1988.[13] From 1981 to 1988, no team from theConfederation of African Football (CAF) was able to win the tournament and all winners were from theAsian Football Confederation (AFC).[14]
An African club became champions of the Arab world for the first time in1989 asWydad Casablanca ofMorocco beatSaudi Arabia'sAl-Hilal in the final.[15] That same year, UAFA founded a new annual competition that would be held alongside the Arab Club Champions Cup; it was called theArab Cup Winners' Cup and was a competition for the cup winners of Arab countries, with a similar format to that of the Champions Cup.[16] In1992, UAFA introduced theArab Super Cup which was an annual round-robin competition between the winners and runners-up of both the Champions Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.[17] From 1989 until 2001, there were six winners from CAF and five from the AFC.[18] Four of the eleven winners during this time were from Saudi Arabia, whileEspérance de Tunis earned the first win for aTunisian team in1993,Al-Ahly became the firstEgyptian champions in1995,WA Tlemcen earnedAlgeria's first title in1998 andAl-Sadd won the first title for aQatari club in2001.[19]
In2002, UAFA made a decision that changed the face of Arab club football.[4] With the increasing number of commitments facing Arab clubs in the modern era, UAFA decided to merge the Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup with the Champions Cup to form the Arab Unified Club Championship, which would be the only UAFA club tournament.[18] Two editions of the tournament were played under this name, withAl-Ahli ofSaudi Arabia winning in2002 andZamalek winning in2003.[20] After the 2003 edition,ART became the tournament's sponsor and UAFA then changed the name of the tournament to the Arab Champions League so that its name was similar to other elite club tournaments such as theUEFA Champions League,CAF Champions League,AFC Champions League andOFC Champions League.[14]Tunisia'sClub Sfaxien became the first winners of the Champions League era.[21] From the2004–05 edition onwards, UAFA reintroduced two-legged finals, which had not been used since the first edition of the tournament.[5]
After title wins for Saudi Arabia'sAl-Ittihad andMorocco'sRaja Casablanca,ES Sétif ofAlgeria became the first back-to-back winners in the Champions League era by claiming both the2006–07 and2007–08 titles.[10] After the2008–09 edition won byEspérance de Tunis ofTunisia, UAFA ran into organisational problems due to issues with the tournament's new sponsor.[14] This prevented the tournament from being held for four years until it resurfaced in2012–13 under the new name of UAFA Club Cup, with Algeria'sUSM Alger earning their first title.[22] However, UAFA then ran into the same problems as before which led to another four-year hiatus.[10] The competition was held again in2017 under the name of Arab Club Championship with 20 competing teams; the group stage and knockout stage were held inEgypt and the final was held as a single leg.[23] Espérance de Tunis were crowned champions making them the joint-most successful team in the competition's history.[14]
The number of teams doubled to 40 for the2018–19 season where the competition was renamed to Arab Club Champions Cup and its format was changed.[24] The2023 edition of the tournament was widely covered by international media due to the participation of a number of high-profile players such asCristiano Ronaldo,Karim Benzema andN'Golo Kanté following their transfers toSaudi Pro League clubs.[25] Out of the thirteen champions crowned from 2002 to 2023, ten of them were from Africa and only three were from Asia.[10]
Since the 2018–19 season, the competition has been namedArab Club Champions Cup, while each edition of the tournament also has its own special name based on the host nation of the tournament or host of the final match. The2019 final was hosted in theUnited Arab Emirates, therefore the2018–19 edition was named theZayed Champions Cup to mark 100 years since the birth of the lateSheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the United Arab Emirates.[26] The2020 final was hosted inMorocco, therefore the2019–20 edition was named theMohammed VI Champions Cup afterMohammed VI of Morocco.[27] The2023 edition of the tournament was hosted inSaudi Arabia from the group stage onwards, and was thus namedKing Salman Club Cup afterSalman of Saudi Arabia.[28]
The logo of the Arab Club Champions Cup is a white circle with a grey outline, featuring navy, red, purple and green patterning with a navy diamond in the centre bearing the wordsArab Champions in Arabic. The name of the competition in both English and Arabic features underneath the logo. The logo is adapted slightly for each edition of the tournament to reflect the name and host nation of that specific edition.[29]
As of 2023, the fixed amount of prize money paid to participating clubs is as follows:[30]
| Prize money | |
|---|---|
| Winners | $6,000,000 |
| Runners-up | $2,500,000 |
| Semi-finalists | $200,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | $150,000 |
| Group stage | $100,000 |
| Qualifying rounds | $20,000 |
| Club | Title(s) | Runners-up | Seasons won | Seasons runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Espérance de Tunis | 3 | 2 | 1993,2009,2017 | 1986,1995 |
| Al-Rasheed | 3 | 0 | 1985,1986,1987 | — |
| Al-Hilal | 2 | 3 | 1994,1995 | 1989,2019,2023 |
| Al-Shabab | 2 | 1 | 1992,1999 | 1998 |
| Club Sfaxien | 2 | 1 | 2000,2004 | 2005 |
| Raja Casablanca | 2 | 1 | 2006,2020 | 1996 |
| Al-Ettifaq | 2 | 0 | 1984,1988 | — |
| ES Sétif | 2 | 0 | 2007,2008 | — |
| Al-Ittihad | 1 | 3 | 2005 | 1987,1994,2020 |
| Wydad Casablanca | 1 | 2 | 1989 | 2008,2009 |
| Club Africain | 1 | 2 | 1997 | 1988,2002 |
| Al Ahly | 1 | 1 | 1996 | 1997 |
| Al-Shorta | 1 | 0 | 1982 | — |
| WA Tlemcen | 1 | 0 | 1998 | — |
| Al-Sadd | 1 | 0 | 2001 | — |
| Al-Ahli | 1 | 0 | 2002 | — |
| Zamalek | 1 | 0 | 2003 | — |
| USM Alger | 1 | 0 | 2013 | — |
| Étoile du Sahel | 1 | 0 | 2019 | — |
| Al-Nassr | 1 | 0 | 2023 | — |
 Al-Jaish | 0 | 2 | — | 1999,2000 |
 Al-Faisaly | 0 | 2 | — | 2007,2017 |
 Nejmeh | 0 | 1 | — | 1982 |
| KAC Kénitra | 0 | 1 | — | 1984 |
| USM El-Harrach | 0 | 1 | — | 1985 |
| Al-Arabi | 0 | 1 | — | 1992 |
 Al-Muharraq | 0 | 1 | — | 1993 |
| MC Oran | 0 | 1 | — | 2001 |
 Al-Kuwait | 0 | 1 | — | 2003 |
| Al-Ismaily | 0 | 1 | — | 2004 |
| ENPPI Club | 0 | 1 | — | 2006 |
| Al-Arabi | 0 | 1 | — | 2013 |
| Nation | Titles | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 9 | 7 |
| Tunisia | 7 | 5 |
| Algeria | 4 | 2 |
| Iraq | 4 | 0 |
| Morocco | 3 | 4 |
| Egypt | 2 | 3 |
| Qatar | 1 | 1 |
| Jordan | 0 | 2 |
| Kuwait | 0 | 2 |
| Syria | 0 | 2 |
| Bahrain | 0 | 1 |
| Lebanon | 0 | 1 |
| Continent | Titles | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 16 | 14 |
| Asia | 14 | 16 |
| Global |
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| North, Central America & the Caribbean |
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| Intercontinental |
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See also:International women's club football | |||||||||
