The 2023 African Football League was the first edition of

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's newest club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament, the African Football League, organized by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF). This season was meant to be a precursor tournament to the full fledged version, which will start in the 2024–25 season, after being delayed a year.

Background

The competition, initially announced in 2022 as the Africa Super League, was to involve 24 teams divided into three geographical regions and have a promotion-relegation system. The competition was delayed from August to October 2023, renamed to the African Football League, and revised into an eight-team knockout format for its inaugural season. This season was meant to be a precursor, as the originally announced format was supposed to be introduced starting in 2024–25, though this was later cancelled.

Schedule

The schedule was as follows.

Format

Each tie was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

was applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

was not played and the winners were decided by a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Teams

The African Football League involved 8 teams chosen by the CAF to enter the tournament.

Bracket

The bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final), which was held on 2 September 2023, 16:00 GMT (19:00 local time,

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), at the CAF headquarters in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

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Quarter-finals

The first legs were played on 20, 21 and 22 October, and the second legs were played on 24 and 26 October 2023. ''3–3 on aggregate. Al Ahly won on away goals.'' ---- ''Espérance de Tunis won 3–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Wydad AC won 4–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Mamelodi Sundowns won 2–0 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

The first legs were played on 29 October, and the second legs were played on 1 November 2023. ''Mamelodi Sundowns won 1–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''1–1 on aggregate. Wydad AC won 5–4 on penalties.''

Final

The first leg was played on 5 November, and the second leg was played on 12 November 2023. ''Mamelodi Sundowns won 3–2 on aggregate.''

Top goalscorers

References

External links

CAFonline.comAfrican Football League – AFL
{{DEFAULTSORT:African Football League 2023 October 2023 sports events in Africa November 2023 sports events in Africa 2023 in African football