2013 CAF Confederation Cup

The 2013 CAF Confederation Cup (also known as the 2013 Orange CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 10th edition of the CAF Confederation Cup, Africa's secondary club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The winner earned the right to play in the 2014 CAF Super Cup. The defending champions AC Léopards did not enter the tournament as they qualified for the 2013 CAF Champions League and reached the group stage.

In the final, CS Sfaxien of Tunisia defeated TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and were crowned CAF Confederation Cup champions for a record third time.

Association team allocation
All 56 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Confederation Cup, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in the competition. The title holders could also enter if they had not already qualified for the CAF Champions League or CAF Confederation Cup. As a result, theoretically a maximum of 69 teams could enter the tournament (plus eight teams eliminated from the CAF Champions League which entered the play-off round) – although this level has never been reached.

For the 2013 CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF used the 2007–2011 CAF 5-year ranking, which calculated points for each association based on their clubs’ performance over those 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. The criteria for points were the following:

The points were multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
 * 2011 – 5
 * 2010 – 4
 * 2009 – 3
 * 2008 – 2
 * 2007 – 1

Teams
The following teams entered the competition. Teams in bold received a bye to the first round. The other teams entered the preliminary round.

Associations are shown according to their 2007–2011 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated.


 * Notes

The following associations did not enter a team: Zimbabwe (11th – 13 pts), Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Réunion, Somalia, Uganda, Zanzibar.

Moreover, the eight losers of the 2013 CAF Champions League second round entered the play-off round.
 * 🇪🇹 Saint George
 * 🇹🇳 CA Bizertin
 * 🇨🇩 TP Mazembe
 * 🇳🇬 Enugu Rangers
 * JSM Béjaïa
 * 🇲🇦 FUS Rabat
 * 🇲🇱 Stade Malien
 * ES Sétif

Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt).

Qualifying rounds
The draw for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds was held on 9 December 2012, and the fixtures were announced by the CAF on 10 December 2012.

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule was applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to a penalty shoot-out (no extra time was played).

Preliminary round

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 * Notes

First round

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 * Notes

Second round

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Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 May 2013. The winners of the Confederation Cup second round were drawn against the losers of the Champions League second round, with the former hosting the second leg.


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 * Notes

Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 14 May 2013. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four. Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
 * Tiebreakers
 * 1) Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned
 * 2) Goal difference in games between the teams concerned
 * 3) Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned
 * 4) Goal difference in all games
 * 5) Goals scored in all games

Knockout stage
Knock-out ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule was applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to a penalty shoot-out (no extra time was played).

Semi-finals
In the semi-finals, the group A winners played the group B runners-up and the group B winners played the group A runners-up, with the group winners hosting the second leg.


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Final
In the final, the order of the legs was decided by a draw.

CS Sfaxien won 3–2 on aggregate.

Top scorers
Source: