| Tourney Name: | CAF Champions League |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Dates: | 28 January – 13 November 2011 |
| Num Teams: | 55 |
| Associations: | 43 |
| Champion Other: |  Espérance ST |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: |  Wydad AC |
| Matches: | 117 |
| Goals: | 278 |
| Top Scorer: | Edward Sadomba (7 goals) |
| Prevseason: | 2010 |
| Nextseason: | 2012 |
The 2011 CAF Champions League (also known as the 2011 Orange CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 47th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 15th edition under the current CAF Champions League format. The winner Espérance ST participated in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, and also played in the 2012 CAF Super Cup.
Theoretically, up to 55 CAF member associations may enter the 2011 CAF Champions League, 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 . 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:
This system is different from the one used for the 2010 CAF Champions League and previous years.
A similar procedure is used to rank clubs, with the exception that the results from 2006–2010 are used (with 2010 weighted by 5, 2009 by 4, and so on)
Below is the entrants list for the competition. Nations are shown according to their 2005–2009 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated. Teams were also seeded using their individual team 2006–2010 5-year ranking. The top nine sides (shown in bold) received byes to the first qualifying round.
Schedule of dates for 2011 competition.[2]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 20 December 2010 (Cairo, Egypt)[3] | 28–30 January | 11–13 February 25–27 February† 4–6 March† |
| First round | 18–20 March | 1–3 April | ||
| Second round | 22–24 April | 6–8 May | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 15 May 2011 (Cairo, Egypt)[4] | 15–17 July | |
| Matchday 2 | 29–31 July | |||
| Matchday 3 | 12–14 August | |||
| Matchday 4 | 26–28 August | |||
| Matchday 5 | 9–11 September | |||
| Matchday 6 | 16–18 September | |||
| Knock-out stage | Semifinals | 30 September–2 October | 14–16 October | |
| Final | 4–6 November | 11–13 November | ||
† The second leg of the preliminary round matches are postponed to 25–27 February (or further to 4–6 March) in case the club have at least three players in the 2011 African Nations Championship.[5]
See main article: 2011 CAF Champions League qualifying rounds. The fixtures for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds were announced on 20 December 2010.[6]
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 applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to a penalty shootout (no extra time is played).[7]
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The losing teams from the second round advance to the 2011 CAF Confederation Cup play-off round.[7]
On 14 May 2011, CAF announced that TP Mazembe (Congo DR) were ejected from the Champions League following a complaint about the eligibility of TP Mazembe player Janvier Besala Bokungu from Tanzanian club Simba, who lost to them in the first round.
As a result, the Organising Committee decided that a replacement for the group stage would be determined by a play-off match at a neutral venue between Simba and Moroccan club Wydad AC (who lost to TP Mazembe in the second round).[12] [13]
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See main article: 2011 CAF Champions League group stage.
See main article: 2011 CAF Champions League knockout stage.
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See main article: 2011 CAF Champions League Final.
Espérance de Tunis won 1–0 on aggregate.
| Rank | Name | Team | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edward Sadomba | Al-Hilal | 7 |
| 2 | Youssef Msakni | ES Tunis | 5 |
| Mouhcine Iajour | Wydad AC | ||
| 4 |  Adama Bakayoko | ASEC Mimosas | 4 |
| Uche Kalu | Enyimba | ||
 Yannick N'Djeng | ES Tunis | ||
| Oussama Darragi | ES Tunis | ||
| Pedro Henriques | Interclube | ||
| Alfred Luputa | ZESCO United | ||
| Fabrice N'Guessi | Wydad AC | ||
| 11 |  Emad Moteab | Al-Ahly | 3 |
| Jacques Haman | Coton Sport FC | ||
| Hilaire Momi | Coton Sport FC | ||
| Lazhar Hadj Aïssa | ES Sétif | ||
| Nabil Hemani | ES Sétif | ||
| Victor Barnabas | Enyimba | ||
| Valentine Nwabili | Enyimba | ||
| Réda Babouche | MC Alger | ||
| Brahim Bedbouda | MC Alger | ||
| Abdelmalek Mokdad | MC Alger | ||
| Kellebonin | Olympic Real | ||
| Hassan Tair | Raja CA | ||
| Paizinho | Recreativo Caála | ||
| Mbwana Samata | Simba SC |
