| Tourney Name: | CAF Confederation Cup |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Size: | 130px |
| Dates: | 18 February – 25 November 2012 |
| Num Teams: | 48+8 |
| Associations: | 37 |
| Champion Other: | AC Léopards |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: |  Djoliba |
| Matches: | 122 |
| Goals: | 285 |
| Top Scorer: | Rudy Ndey Ismaïla Diarra Edward Sadomba (5 goals) |
| Prevseason: | 2011 |
| Nextseason: | 2013 |
The 2012 CAF Confederation Cup (also known as the 2012 Orange CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 9th edition of the CAF Confederation Cup, Africa's secondary club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
AC Léopards from the Republic of the Congo won their first title, defeating Djoliba from Mali with a 4–3 win on aggregate in the final. They earned the right to play in the 2013 CAF Super Cup.
Theoretically, up to 55 CAF member associations may enter the 2012 CAF Confederation Cup, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter 2 teams in the competition. For this year's competition, CAF used 2006-10 5-Year ranking. As a result, a maximum of 67 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
See main article: CAF 5-year ranking.
CAF calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs’ performance over the last 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup, not taking into considering the running year. The criteria for points are the following:[1]
| CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 5 points | 4 points | |
| Runner-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 follow:
Below is the entrants list for the competition. Nations are shown according to their 2006–2010 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated. Teams were also seeded using their individual 2007–2011 5-Year team Ranking. The top sixteen sides (shown in bold) received byes to the first qualifying round.
Moreover, eight losers from the 2012 CAF Champions League second round entered the play-off round:
Schedule of dates for 2012 competition.[5]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 9 December 2011 (Cairo, Egypt) | 17–19 February | 2–4 March |
| First round | 23–25 March | 6–8 April | ||
| Second round (1st Round of 16) | 27–29 April | 11–13 May | ||
| Play-off round (2nd Round of 16) | 15 May 2012 (Cairo, Egypt)[6] | 29 June–1 July | 13–15 July | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 3–5 August | ||
| Matchday 2 | 17–19 August | |||
| Matchday 3 | 31 August–2 September | |||
| Matchday 4 | 14–16 September | |||
| Matchday 5 | 5–7 October | |||
| Matchday 6 | 19–21 October | |||
| Knock-out stage | Semifinals | 2–4 November | 9–11 November | |
| Final | 16–18 November | 23–25 November | ||
See main article: 2012 CAF Confederation Cup qualifying rounds. The fixtures for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds were announced on 9 December 2011.[7]
Qualification ties were decided over two legs, with aggregate goals used to determine the winner. 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 shootout (no extra time was played).[8]
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In the play-off round, the winners from the second round played against the losers from the 2012 CAF Champions League second round.[8] The winners of the CAF Confederation Cup second round hosted the second leg at home.
The draw for the play-off round and group stage was held on 15 May 2012.[9] For the play-off round draw, two teams were seeded (using their individual 2007–2011 5-Year team Ranking),[10] and for the group stage draw, the winners of the play-off round ties involving them were seeded into Pot 1, and the winners of the remaining ties were seeded into Pot 2. Each group contained one team from Pot 1 and three teams from Pot 2.[11]
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See main article: 2012 CAF Confederation Cup group stage.
The matchdays were 3–5 August, 17–19 August, 31 August–2 September, 14–16 September, 5–7 October, and 19–21 October.[12]
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See main article: 2012 CAF Confederation Cup knock-out stage.
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See main article: 2012 CAF Confederation Cup Final.
AC Léopards won 4–3 on aggregate.
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rudy Ndey | AC Léopards | 5 |
| Ismaïla Diarra | Cercle Olympique de Bamako | 5 | |
| Edward Sadomba |  Al-Hilal | 5 | |
| 4 | Moco | Interclube | 4 |
 Abdul Razak Fiston | LLB Académic | 4 | |
 Adane Girma | Saint George SA | 4 | |
| Alou Bagayoko | Djoliba | 4 | |
| Mudather El Tahir | Al-Hilal | 4 | |
| Ahmed El-Basha | Al-Merreikh | 4 | |
| Ezechiel Ndouassel |  Club Africain | 4 |
