2017 CAF Confederation Cup
The 2017 CAF Confederation Cup was the 14th edition of the CAF Confederation Cup, Africa's secondary club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football.
Starting from this season, the group stage was expanded from eight to 16 teams, divided into four groups of four, and the knockout stage expanded from 4 to 8 teams.
Defending champions TP Mazembe, which entered the Confederation Cup after losing in the CAF Champions League">Confederation of African Football">CAF Champions League [|first round], defeated Supersport United in the final, and earned the right to play against the winners of the 2017 CAF Champions League in the 2018 CAF Super Cup.
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. As a result, theoretically a maximum of 68 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.For the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF uses the 2011–2015 CAF 5-year ranking, which calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs' performance over those 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. The criteria for points are the following:
| CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | |
| Winners | 5 points | 4 points |
| Runners-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 follows:
- 2015 – 5
- 2014 – 4
- 2013 – 3
- 2012 – 2
- 2011 – 1
Teams
The following 52 teams from 40 associations entered the competition.- Teams in bold received a bye to the first round.
- The other teams entered the preliminary round.
A further 16 teams eliminated from the 2017 CAF Champions League enter the play-off round.
;Associations which did not enter a team
- Benin
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Djibouti
- Eritrea
- Gambia
- Guinea-Bissau
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Football Federation of the [Islamic Republic of Mauritania|Mauritania]
- Namibia
- Réunion
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Somalia
- Togo
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.The calendar was amended from the original one for the following dates:
- Quarter-finals first leg: moved from 8–10 September to 15–17 September
- Quarter-finals second leg: moved from 15–17 September to 22–24 September
- Semi-finals second leg: moved from 13–15 October to 20–22 October
Group stage
| Tiebreakers |