The draw for the 2023/24 season of the CAF Champions has been confirmed by the continent’s governing body, CAF, to be held this week.
The official draw for the Group Stages of the CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup will be conducted on Friday, 06 October in Johannesburg, South Africa 🇿🇦 from (10h00 GMT) 13h00. pic.twitter.com/8CfEY0oTjM
— Eric Njiru (@EricNjiiru) October 4, 2023
The final qualifying rounds of the Champions League were concluded on Monday and the 16 teams that will be fighting for honours in the competition have emerged.
Champions of the competition, Al Ahly SC, will feature in the Draw along with other household names of African football who will be looking at achieving continental glory this season.
Amongst some of exciting names in the Champions League include Mauritania's FC Nouadhibou who surprised Real Bamako while Jwaneng Galaxy of Botswana eliminated 1995 champions Orlando Pirates.
It will be recalled that Nigerian representatives in the competition – Enyimba and Remo Stars – could not make the past the first round after they were dumped out by Libyan side Al Ahli Benghazi (Libya) and Medeama SC (Ghana).
The draw will see the qualified teams grouped into four different groups and the top two from each group will be moving into the second round.
Here is a look at draw details, where it will take place and it can be followed live.
When will the CAF Champions League draws take place
The official draw for the Group Stages of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League will be conducted on Friday, 06 October 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The CAF Champions League draw will start at 12h00 GMT (14h00 Nigerian time).
The list of teams that qualified for the CAF Champions League this season include;
Al Ahly SC (Egypt) Al Hilal (Sudan), Asec Mimosas (Côte d’Ivoire), CR Belouizdad (Algeria), ES Sahel (Tunisia), Esperance (Tunisia), FC Nouadhibou (Mauritania), Jwaneng Galaxy (Botswana), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), Medeama SC (Ghana), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Pyramids (Egypt), Simba SC (Tanzania), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Wydad AC (Morocco), Young Africans (Tanzania).
Where to watch the CAF Champions League draws
It will be live on CAF Official website: cafonline.com and CAF YouTube channel (CAFTV).
The CAF Champions League draw format
The teams will be seeded by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons (CAF 5-year ranking points shown next to every team).
Each group will contain one team from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4, and each team will be allocated to the positions in their group according to their pot.
It is expected that defending champions Al Ahly, Wydad Casablanca, Esperance and Mamelodi Sundowns will be placed in Pot 1. In Pot 2, we have CR Belouizdad of Algeria, Pyramids, SImba and Petro Atletico.
Pot 3 and Pot 4 are for teams who have not done anything major in this competition in recent years. A number of West African and East African teams have found themselves here. Pot 3 has TP Mazembe, Al Hilal, ASEC Mimosas and Yanga, while Pot 4 has Etoile du Sahel, Jwaneng Galaxy, FC Nouadhibou and Medeama SC.
The group stages will begin in the last weekend of November and will run through till match day six in March 2024. The final, which is a two legged affair, will take place in May 2024.
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 weeks ago
