2011 CAF Champions League
The 2011 CAF Champions League was the 47th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football, and the 15th edition under the current CAF Champions League format. The winner Espérance ST participated in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, and also played in the 2012 CAF Super Cup.
Association team allocation
Theoretically, up to 55 CAF member associations may enter the 2011 CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to CAF 5-Year Ranking eligible to enter 2 teams in the competition. For this year's competition, CAF used . As a result, a maximum of 67 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.Ranking system
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:| 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:
- 2009 – 5
- 2008 – 4
- 2007 – 3
- 2006 – 2
- 2005 – 1
A similar procedure is used to rank clubs, with the exception that the results from 2006–2010 are used
Entrants list
Below is the entrants list for the competition. Nations are shown according to their 2005–2009 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 received byes to the first qualifying round.;Notes
- Associations that did not enter a team: Cape Verde, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Réunion, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, Togo, Uganda
- Unranked associations have no ranking points and hence are equal 20th.
- Unranked teams have no rankings points and hence are equal 21st. Club ranking is determined only between teams qualified for the 2011 CAF Champions League.
Round and draw dates
† The second leg of the preliminary round matches are postponed to 25–27 February in case the club have at least three players in the 2011 African Nations Championship.
Qualifying rounds
The fixtures for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds were announced on 20 December 2010.Qualification ties were decided over two legs, with aggregate goals used to determine the winner. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to a penalty shootout.
Preliminary round
First round
Second round
Special play-off
On 14 May 2011, the CAF announced that TP Mazembe from Congo DR were disqualified from the Champions League group stage following a complaint about the eligibility of TP Mazembe's player Janvier Besala Bokungu from Tanzanian side Simba, which 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 side Wydad Casablanca, which lost to TP Mazembe in the second round.Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 15 May 2011. The eight teams were seeded into four pots, with each group containing one team from each pot.| Key to colours in group tables |
| Group winners and runners-up advance to the [|Semifinals] |