2017 Arab Club Championship


The 2017 Arab Club Championship, also known as the 2017 UAFA Club Championship, was the 27th season of the Arab World's inter-club football tournament organised by UAFA, and the first season since it was renamed from the UAFA Club Cup to the Arab Club Championship. The competition was won by Tunisian club Espérance de Tunis, who defeated Jordanian side Al-Faisaly 3–2 after extra time in the final to secure a joint-record third title.

Allocation of entries

The following team entries allocation was announced by the Union of Arab Football Associations on 20 June 2016. Each association was given entry either to the qualifying play-off or to the group stage based on the FIFA World Ranking of the associations on 2 June 2016. Only teams who were champions or runners-up of either their nation's league or one of their nation's cup competitions were allowed to participate in the tournament.
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Teams

The following 20 teams from 18 associations entered the competition.
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Venues

The following three venues were chosen to host all matches from the group stage onwards.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.
StageRoundDate
Qualifying play-offRound 114 September 2016 – 4 March 2017
Qualifying play-offRound 214 September 2016 – 4 March 2017
Qualifying play-offPlay-off round14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017
Group stageMatchday 122 July – 6 August 2017
Group stageMatchday 222 July – 6 August 2017
Group stageMatchday 322 July – 6 August 2017
Knockout stageSemi-finals22 July – 6 August 2017
Knockout stageFinal22 July – 6 August 2017

Qualifying play-off

The qualifying play-off was held between 14 September 2016 and 4 March 2017. The three winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the nine direct entrants.

Preliminary round 1

;Asia Zone
;Africa Zone
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Preliminary round 2

!colspan=5|Asia Zone
!colspan=5|Africa Zone

Play-off round

!colspan=5|Asia Zone
!colspan=5|Africa Zone

Group stage

From the group stage onwards, the tournament was held in Egypt in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria. Twelve teams participated in the group stage, divided into three groups. The draw for the groups took place on 5 May 2017 in Cairo. The top team of each group along with the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.
Tiebreakers

If two or more teams were to be equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings would have been determined as follows:


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Group B


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Group C


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Ranking of second-placed teams

The highest ranked second-placed team from the groups advanced to the [|knockout stage]; the rest were eliminated.

Knockout stage

Matches were determined by a random draw.

Semi-finals

Final

Top scorers

Prize money

announced that the winner will receive $2.5 million, while $600,000 will go to the runner-up and the losing semi-finalists will each get $200,000.

Media

The tournament gained international coverage for being the first football tournament to be broadcast live on Twitter, with all 21 matches from the group stage and knockout stage being shown for free on the competition's official Twitter account.

Broadcasting