| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 28 January – 13 November 2011 |
| Teams | 55 (from 43 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Espérance ST (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Wydad AC |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 117 |
| Goals scored | 278 (2.38 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Edward Sadomba(7 goals) |
←2010 2012 → | |
The2011 CAF Champions League (also known as the2011OrangeCAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 47th edition ofAfrica's premier clubfootball tournament organized by theConfederation of African Football (CAF), and the 15th edition under the currentCAF Champions League format. The winnerEspérance ST participated in the2011 FIFA Club World Cup, and also played in the2012 CAF Super Cup.
Theoretically, up to 55 CAF member associations may enter the 2011 CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according toCAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter 2 teams in the competition. For this year's competition,CAF used2005-09 5-Year ranking. As a result, a maximum of 67 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
CAF calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs’ performance over the last 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup, not taking into considering the running year. The criteria for points are the following:[1]
| CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | 5 points | 4 points |
| Runner-up | 4 points | 3 points |
| Losing semi-finalists | 3 points | 2 points |
| 3rd place in groups | 2 points | 1 point |
| 4th place in groups | 1 point | 1 point |
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follow:
This system is different from the one used for the2010 CAF Champions League and previous years.
A similar procedure is used to rank clubs, with the exception that the results from 2006–2010 are used (with 2010 weighted by 5, 2009 by 4, and so on)
Below is the entrants list for the competition. Nations are shown according to their2005–2009 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated. Teams were also seeded using their individual team 2006–2010 5-year ranking. The top nine sides (shown inbold) received byes to the first qualifying round.
Schedule of dates for 2011 competition.[2]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 20 December 2010 (Cairo,Egypt)[3] | 28–30 January | 11–13 February 25–27 February† 4–6 March† |
| First round | 18–20 March | 1–3 April | ||
| Second round | 22–24 April | 6–8 May | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 15 May 2011 (Cairo,Egypt)[4] | 15–17 July | |
| Matchday 2 | 29–31 July | |||
| Matchday 3 | 12–14 August | |||
| Matchday 4 | 26–28 August | |||
| Matchday 5 | 9–11 September | |||
| Matchday 6 | 16–18 September | |||
| Knock-out stage | Semifinals | 30 September–2 October | 14–16 October | |
| Final | 4–6 November | 11–13 November | ||
† The second leg of the preliminary round matches are postponed to 25–27 February (or further to 4–6 March) in case the club have at least three players in the2011 African Nations Championship.[5]
The fixtures for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds were announced on 20 December 2010.[6]
Qualification ties were decided overtwo legs, with aggregate goals used to determine the winner. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, theaway goals rule applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to apenalty shootout (noextra time is played).[7]
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
JC Abidjan | w/o3 |  Al-Ittihad | — | — |
US Bitam | 1–2 |  Enyimba | 0–0 | 1–2 |
| Dynamos | 4–4 (a) |  MC Alger | 4–1 | 0–3 |
Al-Merreikh | 2–2 (2–3p) |  Inter Luanda | 2–0 | 0–2 |
Diaraf | 4–1 |  Djoliba | 3–0 | 1–1 |
| Espérance ST | 5–2 |  ASPAC | 5–0 | 0–2 |
| Motor Action | 0–0 (2–4p) | ASEC Mimosas | 0–0 | —4 |
| Stade Malien | 2–2 (a) | Raja Casablanca | 2–1 | 0–1 |
| Club Africain | w/o5 |  Zamalek | 4–2 | Abd5 |
| Al-Hilal | 4–1 | Recreativo Caála | 3–0 | 1–1 |
TP Mazembe | w/o6 |  Simba | 3–1 | 3–2 |
| Wydad AC | 2–0 | Kano Pillars | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| ES Sétif | 6–3 |  ASFA Yennenga | 2–0 | 4–3 |
| AS Vita Club | 0–3 |  Coton Sport FC | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| Al-Ahly | 2–1 |  Supersport United | 2–0 | 0–1 |
ZESCO United | 7–0 |  Young Buffaloes | 5–0 | 2–0 |
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enyimba | 1–0 | Al-Ittihad | 1–0 | —7 |
| Inter Luanda | 3–4 | MC Alger | 1–1 | 2–3 |
| Espérance ST | 6–0 | Diaraf | 5–0 | 1–0 |
| Raja Casablanca | 1–1 (5–4p) | ASEC Mimosas | 1–1 | —7 |
| Al-Hilal | w/o8 | Club Africain | 1–0 | Abd8 |
| Wydad AC | w/o9 | TP Mazembe | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| Coton Sport FC | 4–3 | ES Sétif | 4–1 | 0–2 |
| ZESCO United | 0–1 | Al-Ahly | 0–0 | 0–1 |
The losing teams from the second round advance to the2011 CAF Confederation Cup play-off round.[7]
On 14 May 2011, CAF announced thatTP Mazembe (Congo DR) were ejected from the Champions League following a complaint about the eligibility of TP Mazembe playerJanvier Besala Bokungu from Tanzanian clubSimba, who lost to them in the first round.
As a result, the Organising Committee decided that a replacement for the group stage would be determined by a play-off match at a neutral venue between Simba and Moroccan clubWydad AC (who lost to TP Mazembe in the second round).[12][13]
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Wydad AC | 3–0 | Simba |
| Key to colours in group tables |
|---|
| Group winners and runners-up advance to theSemifinals |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | ENY | HIL | COT | RCA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enyimba | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 10 | Advance toknockout stage | — | 2–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 | |
| 2 | Al-Hilal | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 6 | 1–2 | — | 2–1 | 1–0 | ||
| 3 | Coton Sport FC | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 5 | 2–3 | 2–0 | — | 2–1 | ||
| 4 | Raja CA | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | — |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | EST | WAC | AHL | MCA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Espérance ST | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 8 | Advance toknockout stage | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | |
| 2 | Wydad AC | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 6[a] | 2–2 | — | 1–1 | 4–0 | ||
| 3 | Al-Ahly | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 6[a] | 1–1 | 3–3 | — | 2–0 | ||
| 4 | MC Alger | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 12 | −8 | 4 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | — |
| Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Wydad AC | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||
| 4 | Enyimba | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Wydad AC | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Espérance ST | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Al-Hilal | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 2 | Espérance ST | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wydad AC | 1–0 | Enyimba | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| Al-Hilal | 0–3 | Espérance ST | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| Espérance ST | 1 – 0 | Wydad AC |
|---|---|---|
Afful 21' | Report |
Espérance de Tunis won 1–0 on aggregate.
