New African club competition format finalised

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The Confederation Cup will replace the African Cup Winners' Cup and the CAF Cup next year, offering a share of television and marketing revenue to sides that reach the last eight, officials said on Friday.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has finalised details of the new competition, which will involve 64 teams made up of the cup winners from each of Africa's 52 member countries and 12 teams from countries allowed a second entry.

The 12 are Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

Their second entry was determined by a formula based on past results of their clubs competing in African club competitions.

The 12 countries can also enter the third-place finisher in their domestic league competition.

Their top two finishers play in the expanded African Champions League, which will also have 64 entrants from next year.

The 64 Confederation Cup sides will be whittled down to eight after three knockout rounds from February to April next year.

The eight winners then meet the eight third-round losers from the African Champions League in the next round, also to be played on a home and away knockout basis, in May.

The fourth round victors then progress to the mini-league phase of the new competition, which will start in August. The eight qualifiers will be divided into two groups of four each and play a league system.

The participants in the league phase will share in around $3-million of television and marketing rights fees.

The Confederation of African Football last month invited 13 different sports marketing companies to tender for the rights of the event.

The group winners will go on to contest the final, to be played over two legs at the end of the year. There will be no semi-final round, as is the case with the African Champions League.

Both of next year's African club competitions start in early February, clashing with the last two weeks of the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, which is likely to lead to some postponements.