| Tourney Name: | Arab Club Championship |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Country: | Egypt (from group stage onwards) |
| Dates: | Qualifying: 14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017 Competition proper: 22 July 2017 – 6 August 2017 |
| Num Teams: | 20 |
| Confederations: | 2 |
| Associations: | 18 |
| Champion Other: |  Espérance de Tunis |
| Count: | 3 |
| Second Other: |  Al-Faisaly |
| Matches: | 36 |
| Goals: | 83 |
| Attendance: | 755000 |
| Top Scorer: |  Mohamed Fouzair(3 goals) |
| Prevseason: | 2012–13 |
| Nextseason: | 2018–19 |
The 2017 Arab Club Championship was the 27th season of the Arab World's inter-club football tournament organised by UAFA, and the first season since it was renamed from the UAFA Club Cup to the Arab Club Championship. The competition was won by Tunisian club Espérance de Tunis, who defeated Jordanian side Al-Faisaly 3–2 after extra time in the final to secure a joint-record third title.
The following team entries allocation was announced by the Union of Arab Football Associations on 20 June 2016.[1] Each association was given entry either to the qualifying play-off or to the group stage based on the FIFA World Ranking of the associations on 2 June 2016.[2] Only teams who were champions or runners-up of either their nation's league or one of their nation's cup competitions were allowed to participate in the tournament.
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Participation for 2017 Arab Club Championship | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90ee77 width=20 | Allocated group stage slot(s) | ||
| bgcolor=#ffffcc width=20 | Allocated qualifying play-off slot | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Did not participate |
| +Asia Zone | ||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Qualifying play-off | |||||
| Zone | All | |||||
| 1 | 5 | Saudi Arabia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 6 | United Arab Emirates | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 7 | Jordan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 8 |  Qatar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 9 | Oman | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 10 |  Syria | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 11 |  Iraq | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 12 | Palestine | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | 16 |  Bahrain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 17 | Kuwait | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | 18 | Lebanon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | 20 |  Yemen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 6 | ||||||
| 10 | ||||||
| +Africa Zone | ||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Qualifying play-off | |||||
| Zone | All | |||||
| 1 | 1 | Algeria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 2 |  Egypt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | Morocco | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 13 |  Mauritania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 14 |  Libya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 15 | Sudan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | 19 |  Comoros | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | 21 |  Djibouti | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 22 |  Somalia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 5 | ||||||
| 10 | ||||||
The following 20 teams from 18 associations entered the competition.
| +Asia Zone | ||||
| Team | Qualifying method | App | Last App | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage entrants | ||||
| Al-Hilal | 2015–16 Saudi Professional League runners-up | 9th | ||
| Al-Nassr | 2016 King Cup runners-up | 5th | ||
| Al-Wahda | 2015–16 UAE League Cup winners | 1st | none | |
| Al-Faisaly | 2015–16 Jordan League runners-up | 12th | ||
| Play-off round entrants | ||||
| Fanja | 2015–16 Oman Professional League champions | 3rd | 1989 | |
| Al-Jaish | 2015–16 Syrian Premier League champions | 7th | ||
| Naft Al-Wasat | 2015–16 Iraqi Premier League runners-up | 1st | none | |
| Preliminary round 2 entrants | ||||
| Shabab Al-Khalil | 2015–16 West Bank Premier League champions | 1st | none | |
| Preliminary round 1 entrants | ||||
| Al-Riffa | 2015–16 Bahraini King's Cup runners-up | 8th | ||
| Al-Ahed | 2015–16 Lebanese Premier League runners-up 2015–16 Lebanese FA Cup runners-up | 2nd | ||
| +Africa Zone | ||||
| Team | Qualifying method | App | Last App | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage entrants | ||||
| NA Hussein Dey | 2015–16 Algerian Cup runners-up | 4th | ||
| Al-Ahly | 2015–16 Egyptian Premier League champions 2016 Egypt Cup runners-up | 7th | ||
| Zamalek | 2016 Egypt Cup winners 2015–16 Egyptian Premier League runners-up | 6th | ||
| Espérance de Tunis | 2015–16 Tunisian Cup winners 2015–16 Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 runners-up | 7th | ||
| Fath Union Sport | 2015–16 Botola champions 2015 Coupe du Trône runners-up | 1st | none | |
| Play-off round entrants | ||||
| FC Tevragh-Zeina | 2015–16 Ligue 1 Mauritania champions 2016 Coupe du Président de la République winners | 2nd | ||
| Preliminary round 2 entrants | ||||
| Al-Merrikh | 2016 Sudan Premier League runners-up | 10th | ||
| Preliminary round 1 entrants | ||||
| Volcan Club | 2015 Comoros Premier League champions 2016 Coupe des Comores winners | 1st | none | |
| ASAS Djibouti Télécom | 2015–16 Djibouti Premier League champions 2016 Djibouti Cup winners | 1st | none | |
| Dekedaha | 2015–16 Somali First Division runners-up | 1st | none | |
The following three venues were chosen to host all matches from the group stage onwards.
| Alexandria | Alexandria |
|---|---|
| Borg El Arab Stadium | Alexandria Stadium |
| Capacity 86,000 | Capacity: 13,660 |
| Cairo | |
| Al Salam Stadium | |
| Capacity: 30,000 | |
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[3]
| Stage | Round | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying play-off | Round 1 | 14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017 |
| Round 2 | ||
| Play-off round | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |
| Matchday 2 | ||
| Matchday 3 | ||
| Knockout stage | Semi-finals | |
| Final |
See main article: 2017 Arab Club Championship qualifying play-off.
The qualifying play-off was held between 14 September 2016 and 4 March 2017. The three winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the nine direct entrants.
|-!colspan=5|Asia Zone|-!colspan=5|Africa Zone|}
|-!colspan=5|Asia Zone|-!colspan=5|Africa Zone|}
From the group stage onwards, the tournament was held in Egypt in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria. Twelve teams participated in the group stage, divided into three groups. The draw for the groups took place on 5 May 2017 in Cairo.[4] [5] The top team of each group along with the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.
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The highest ranked second-placed team from the groups advanced to the knockout stage; the rest were eliminated.
Matches were determined by a random draw.
See main article: 2017 Arab Club Championship Final.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohamed Fouzair | Fath Union Sport | 3 |
| 2 | Amr Barakat | Al-Ahly | 2 |
| Ziyad Ahmed | Naft Al-Wasat | ||
| Akram Zuway | Al-Faisaly | ||
 Dominique Mendy | Al-Faisaly | ||
| Mohamad Haidar | Al-Ahed | ||
 Lamine Diakité | Fath Union Sport | ||
| Kelechi Osunwa | Al-Merrikh | ||
| Bakri Al-Madina | Al-Merrikh | ||
| Anice Badri | Espérance de Tunis | ||
| Saad Bguir | Espérance de Tunis | ||
| Taha Yassine Khenissi | Espérance de Tunis |
UAFA announced that the winner will receive $2.5 million, while $600,000 will go to the runner-up and the losing semi-finalists will each get $200,000.[6] [7]
The tournament gained international coverage for being the first football tournament to be broadcast live on Twitter, with all 21 matches from the group stage and knockout stage being shown for free on the competition's official Twitter account.[8]
| Territory | Channel | |
|---|---|---|
| ONTV | ||
| Al-Riyadiah | ||
| Abu Dhabi TV |