The CAF Cup was an annual competition organised by the CAF for domestic leagues runners-up of member associations who have not qualified to one of the two pre-existing CAF international club competitions the African Cup of Champions Clubs or the

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and w ...

History

The tournament was founded in 1992 and modeled after the European

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. Trophy was named after Moshood Abiola, a

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

n businessman, publisher and politician and the first Director of Sports in independent Nigeria. The CAF Cup was the idea of the past CAF president,

Issa Hayatou Issa Hayatou (9 August 1946 – 8 August 2024) was a Cameroonian sports executive, athlete, and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 1988 and 2017. He served as th ...

who successfully made 1992 the year of African football. The competition was initiated soon after the successful

1992 African Cup of Nations The 1992 African Cup of Nations was the 18th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Senegal. The field expanded to twelve teams, split into four groups of three; the top two teams in each ...

in which twelve finalists participated in the competition for the first time in the history of the African competition. 31 teams participated in the CAF Cup's first edition, and the Nigerian club Shooting Stars F.C. were the first to hold the cup after defeating the Ugandan Villa SC in the final. The trophy became an absolute property of

JS Kabylie Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (Kabyle grammar, Kabyle: Ilemẓiyen inaddalen n leqvayel; Berber languages, Tamazight: ⵉⵍⵎⵣⵢⵏ ⵉⵏⴰⴷⴰⵍⵏ ⵏ ⵍⵇⵠⴰⵢⵍ; ), known as JS Kabylie or simply JSK, is an Algerian profession ...

who have won it outright following their third successive win in 2002 being the one and only team in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

who is able to show the trophy in his trophy room. The Moroccan club

Raja CA Raja Club Athletic, widely known as Raja Casablanca or simply Raja, is a Football team, football club based in Casablanca, Morocco, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football league system, Moroccan football. Founded on 20 M ...

was the last to hold the trophy in 2003 defeating the Cameroonian Cotonsport de Garoua in the final. In 2004, the CAF Cup was merged with the

, and was renamed the

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

, again following the European example of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

Format

Only runners-up of the domestic leagues of member associations were eligible to participate in the competition if and only if they were not participating as cup winners of their national associations cup competitions in the

. In case the runner-up of the domestic league was not to participate in the CAF Cup, CAF approval was mandatory to accept another team among the top three placed teams of the concerned association to take part in the competition. All rounds of the competition including the final were played according to the knock-out system of two legs tie. The team which scores a higher aggregate number of goals in the two matches was qualified for the next round.

Records and statistics

Finals

Performance by club

Performance by country

Trivia

was the only team to reach the final for three successive times between 2000 and 2002 being able to win them all and so became the first and only team to keep the CAF Cup trophy.

References

External links

CAF Cup on RSSSF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caf Cup Defunct Confederation of African Football club competitions