Arab Club Champions Cup

The Arab Club Champions Cup (Arabic: كأس العرب للأندية الأبطال, French: Ligue des Champions Arabe)[1] is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by top-division clubs from the Arab world. The tournament is contested by a total of 37 teams from the Asian Football Confederation and the Confederation of African Football.

Arab Club Champions Cup
Founded1981 (1981)
RegionArab world (UAFA)
Number of teams37
Current championsSaudi Arabia Al-Nassr
(1st title)
Most successful club(s)Iraq Al-Rasheed
Tunisia Espérance de Tunis
(3 titles each)
Websiteuafa-ac.com
2023 Arab Club Champions Cup

Founded in 1981, the tournament was held alongside the Arab Cup Winners' Cup and the Arab Super Cup throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, until the Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup were merged with the Champions Cup in 2002. The tournament's first ever champions were Iraqi club Al-Shorta, who defeated Lebanese side Nejmeh in the final over two legs in 1982.[2]

Saudi Arabian clubs have accumulated the most victories, with nine wins. The title has been won by 20 clubs, eight of which have won the title more than once. Since the tournament was merged with the Cup Winners' Cup, only ES Sétif of Algeria have managed consecutive wins, successfully defending their title in 2008. Iraqi club Al-Rasheed and Tunisian side Espérance de Tunis share the record for most titles, with three each. The reigning champions are Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia, who won their first title in 2023.

History

List of Winners
SeasonWinners
Arab Club Champions Cup
1981–82 Iraq Al-Shorta
1984 Saudi Arabia Al-Ettifaq
1985 Iraq Al-Rasheed
1986 Iraq Al-Rasheed (2)
1987 Iraq Al-Rasheed (3)
1988 Saudi Arabia Al-Ettifaq (2)
1989 Morocco Wydad Casablanca
1992 Saudi Arabia Al-Shabab
1993 Tunisia Espérance de Tunis
1994 Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal
1995 Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal (2)
1996 Egypt Al Ahly
1997 Tunisia Club Africain
1998 Algeria WA Tlemcen
1999 Saudi Arabia Al-Shabab (2)
2000 Tunisia Club Sfaxien
2001 Qatar Al-Sadd
Arab Unified Club Championship
2002 Saudi Arabia Al-Ahli Saudi
2003 Egypt Zamalek
Arab Champions League
2003–04 Tunisia Club Sfaxien (2)
2004–05 Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad Jeddah
2005–06 Morocco Raja Casablanca
2006–07 Algeria ES Sétif
2007–08 Algeria ES Sétif (2)
2008–09 Tunisia Espérance de Tunis (2)
UAFA Club Cup
2012–13 Algeria USM Alger
Arab Club Championship
2017 Tunisia Espérance de Tunis (3)
Arab Club Champions Cup
2018–19 Tunisia Étoile du Sahel
2019–20 Morocco Raja CA (2)
2023 Saudi Arabia Al-Nassr

1981–1988: Asian clubs in control

The Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) decided to create a competition for champions of Arab countries after the end of the 1979–80 season.[3] Domestic champions from UAFA's member nations were invited to compete, but after several withdrawals, only three teams from Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan ended up participating.[4] The competition, known as the Arab Club Championship for League Champions,[5] kicked off on 19 June 1981 with Lebanese champions Nejmeh beating Jordanian champions Al-Ahli 2–1.[6] Nejmeh's Jamal Al-Khatib was the scorer of the first ever Arab Club Champions Cup goal.[7] Nejmeh and Al-Shorta competed in the inaugural final in February 1982, with Al-Shorta winning 4–2 on aggregate at Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad to be crowned the first ever champions of the Arab world.[8]

The tournament was not held the following year but returned in 1984 in a round-robin format, and Al-Ettifaq earned the first title for a Saudi Arabian club that year.[9] With the number of participants increasing year upon year, UAFA introduced preliminary qualifying rounds that preceded the final round-robin tournament, before they changed the format of the final tournament in 1987 to one that consisted of a group stage followed by a knockout stage.[10] UAFA also started to allow countries to have more than one participant in 1987, with two Saudi Arabian clubs (Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal) and two Iraqi clubs (Al-Rasheed and Al-Jaish) competing.[11]

Al-Rasheed of Iraq dominated the competition during these years, becoming the first team to win three consecutive championships in 1985, 1986 and 1987, while Al-Ettifaq won their title back in 1988.[12] From 1981 to 1988, no team from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) was able to win the tournament and all winners were from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).[13]

1989–2001: Even between Asian and African sides

An African club became champions of the Arab world for the first time in 1989 as Wydad Casablanca of Morocco beat Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal in the final.[14] That same year, UAFA founded a new annual competition that would be held alongside the Arab Club Champions Cup; it was called the Arab Cup Winners' Cup and was a competition for the cup winners of Arab countries, with a similar format to that of the Champions Cup.[15] In 1992, UAFA introduced the Arab Super Cup which was an annual round-robin competition between the winners and runners-up of both the Champions Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.[16]

From 1989 until 2001, there were six winners from CAF and five from the AFC.[17] Four of the eleven winners during this time were from Saudi Arabia, while Espérance de Tunis earned the first win for a Tunisian team in 1993, Al-Ahly became the first Egyptian champions in 1995, WA Tlemcen earned Algeria's first title in 1998 and Al-Sadd won the first title for a Qatari club in 2001.[18]

2002–present: African teams dominate after unification

In 2002, UAFA made a decision that changed the face of Arab continental football.[3] With the increasing number of commitments facing Arab clubs in the modern era, UAFA decided to merge the Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup with the Champions Cup to form the Arab Unified Club Championship, which would be the only UAFA club tournament.[17] Two editions of the tournament were played under this name, with Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia winning in 2002 and Zamalek winning in 2003.[19] After the 2003 edition, ART became the tournament's sponsor and UAFA then changed the name of the tournament to the Arab Champions League so that its name was similar to other elite continental tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League, CAF Champions League, AFC Champions League and OFC Champions League.[13] Tunisia's Club Sfaxien became the first winners of the Champions League era.[20] From the 2004–05 edition onwards, UAFA reintroduced two-legged finals, which had not been used since the very first edition of the tournament.[4]

After title wins for Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad and Morocco's Raja Casablanca, ES Sétif of Algeria became the first back-to-back winners in the Champions League era by claiming both the 2006–07 and 2007–08 titles.[9] After the 2008–09 edition won by Espérance de Tunis of Tunisia, UAFA ran into organisational problems due to issues with the tournament's new sponsor.[13] This prevented the tournament from being held for four years until it resurfaced in 2012–13 under the new name of UAFA Club Cup, with Algeria's USM Alger earning their first title.[21] However, UAFA then ran into the same problems as before which led to another four-year hiatus.[9] The competition was held again in 2017 under the name of Arab Club Championship with 20 competing teams; the group stage and knockout stage were held in Egypt and the final was held as a single leg.[22] Espérance de Tunis were crowned champions making them the joint-most successful team in the competition's history.[13]

The number of teams doubled to 40 for the 2018–19 season where the competition was renamed to Arab Club Champions Cup and changed its format to become a knockout competition from the Round of 32 onwards.[23] Out of the thirteen champions crowned from 2002 to 2023, ten of them were from Africa and only three were from Asia.[9]

Records and statistics

Finals

Performances by club

Num Club Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
1 Tunisia Espérance de Tunis 3 2 1993, 2009, 2017 1986, 1995
2 Iraq Al-Rasheed 3 0 1985, 1986, 1987
3 Saudi Arabia Al-Hilal 2 3 1994, 1995 1989, 2019, 2023
4 Saudi Arabia Al-Shabab 2 1 1992, 1999 1998
Tunisia Club Sfaxien 2000, 2004 2005
Morocco Raja Casablanca 2006, 2020 1996
7 Saudi Arabia Al-Ettifaq 2 0 1984, 1988
Algeria ES Sétif 2007, 2008
9 Saudi Arabia Al-Ittihad 1 3 2005 1987, 1994, 2020
10 Morocco Wydad Casablanca 1 2 1989 2008, 2009
Tunisia Club Africain 1997 1988, 2002
12 Egypt Al Ahly 1 1 1996 1997
13 Iraq Al-Shorta 1 0 1982
Algeria WA Tlemcen 1998
Qatar Al-Sadd 2001
Saudi Arabia Al-Ahli 2002
Egypt Zamalek 2003
Algeria USM Alger 2013
Tunisia Étoile du Sahel 2019
Saudi Arabia Al-Nassr 2023
21 Syria Al-Jaish 0 2 1999, 2000
Jordan Al-Faisaly 2007, 2017
23 Lebanon Nejmeh 0 1 1982
Morocco KAC Kénitra 1984
Algeria USM El-Harrach 1985
Qatar Al-Arabi 1992
Bahrain Al-Muharraq 1993
Algeria MC Oran 2001
Kuwait Al-Kuwait 2003
Egypt Al-Ismaily 2004
Egypt ENPPI Club 2006
Kuwait Al-Arabi 2013

Performances by country

Num Nation Winners Runners-up
1 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 9 7
2 Tunisia Tunisia 7 5
3 Algeria Algeria 4 2
4 Iraq Iraq 4 0
5 Morocco Morocco 3 4
6 Egypt Egypt 2 3
7 Qatar Qatar 1 1
8 Jordan Jordan 0 2
Kuwait Kuwait
Syria Syria
11 Bahrain Bahrain 0 1
Lebanon Lebanon

Performances by continent

Num Continent Winners Runners-up
1 Africa 16 14
2 Asia 14 16

All-time top scorers

Rank Nat Name Goals Club(s)
1 Saudi Arabia Sami Al-Jaber 26
2 Saudi Arabia Talal Al-Meshal 16
Tunisia Haykel Guemamdia 16
4 Tunisia Zoubair Essafi 14
5 Egypt Abdel Halim Ali 13
6 Morocco Mustapha Bidoudane 12
Saudi Arabia Saad Al-Harthi 12
Saudi Arabia Hamzah Idris 12
9 Algeria Abdelmalek Ziaya 10 ES Sétif
Jordan Hassouneh Al-Sheikh 10
Jordan Mahmoud Shelbaieh 10
Saudi Arabia Essa Al-Mehyani 10
Brazil Romarinho 10
Brazil Sérgio Ricardo 10
Sudan Mohamed Abdelrahman 10
17 Algeria Lamouri Djediat 9 5 ES Sétif, 4 USM Alger
Morocco Salaheddine Bassir 9
Morocco Soufiane Alloudi 9
Saudi Arabia Mohammed Noor 9
Saudi Arabia Waleed Al-Gizani 9
Saudi Arabia Yousuf Al-Thunayan 9
Morocco Bouchaib El Moubarki 9
Mali Tenema N'Diaye 9
Senegal Papa Malick Ba 9
Iraq Ahmed Salah Alwan 9
Bahrain Talal Yousef 9
Egypt Ahmed Abdel Moneim 9 Al Ahly
28 Egypt Gamal Hamza 8 Zamalek
Senegal Issa Aidara 8 WA Tlemcen
Ivory Coast Rémi Adiko 8 ES Sétif
Algeria Noureddine Daham 8 USM Alger
Iraq Haris Mohammed 8 Al-Rasheed
Iraq Ahmed Radhi 8 Al-Rasheed
Morocco Mohamed Madihi 8

See also

References

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  2. "Arab Club Champions Cup". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  3. Al-Ahmed, Abu Baqir (6 November 2007). "حصاد الفرق العراقية في بطولات الاندية العربية خلال ربع قرن" (in Arabic). Kooora.com. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
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  6. Gamal, Khaled (14 August 2018). "الخطيب سجل أول هدف في بطولة الأندية العربية عام 1981.. وكان في مباراة الأهلي!" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  7. Sarah, Raafat (8 January 2017). "يشهد الشهر المقبل أول مشاركة رسمية للاهلي في بطولة كاس الأندية الأسيوية أبطال الكأس" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
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