2016 CAF Confederation Cup qualifying rounds

Draw

The draw for the preliminary, first and second rounds was held on 11 December 2015 in Dakar, Senegal.

The entry round of the 55 teams entered into the draw was determined by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons.

Entry round	First round	Preliminary round
Teams	Espérance de Tunis FUS Rabat Al-Ahly Shendi ENPPI CS Don Bosco CS Constantine Medeama Zanaco CF Mounana AS Kaloum Barrack Young Controllers II Liga Desportiva de Maputo Azam	Stade Gabèsien Misr Lel Makkasa FC Saint-Éloi Lupopo MC Oran Khartoum SC Gagnoa Africa Sports Kawkab Marrakech New Star de Douala UMS de Loum Vita Club Mokanda Diables Noirs USFAS Bamako AS Bakaridjan Nasarawa United Akwa United Bidvest Wits Ajax Cape Town Sagrada Esperança Al-Ittihad Tripoli Defence Force AS SONIDEP Harare City Gaborone United USFA Atlético Olympic Renaissance Fomboni Club Deportivo Mongomo Wallidan Bandari AS Adema Police Génération Foot Light Stars Atlabara SC Villa JKU

Format

In the qualifying rounds, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still tied, extra time would not be played, and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows.

Round	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	12–14 February 2016	26–28 February 2016
First round	11–13 March 2016	18–20 March 2016
Second round	8–10 April 2016	19–20 April 2016
Play-off round	6–8 May 2016	17–18 May 2016

Bracket

The eight winners of the second round advanced to the play-off round, where they were joined by the eight losers of the Champions League second round.

Preliminary round

The preliminary round included the 38 teams that did not receive byes to the first round.

First round

The first round included 32 teams: the 19 winners of the preliminary round, and the 13 teams that received byes to this round.

Second round

The second round included the 16 winners of the first round.

Play-off round

The play-off round included 16 teams: the eight winners of the Confederation Cup second round and the eight losers of the Champions League second round.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 21 April 2016, 14:00 EET, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The winners of the Confederation Cup second round were drawn against the losers of the Champions League second round, with the former hosting the second leg.
The 16 teams were seeded by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons :

• Pot A contained the two highest-ranked winners of the Confederation Cup second round.
• Pot B contained the six lowest-ranked losers of the Champions League second round.
• Pot C contained the two highest-ranked losers of the Champions League second round.
• Pot D contained the six lowest-ranked losers of the Confederation Cup second round.

First, a team from Pot A and a team from Pot B were drawn into two ties. Next, a team from Pot C and a team from Pot D were drawn into two ties. Finally, the remaining teams from Pot B and Pot D were drawn into the last four ties.

Pot	Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D
Qualified from	Confederation Cup	Champions League	Champions League	Confederation Cup
Seeding	Seeded	Unseeded	Seeded	Unseeded
Teams	Espérance de Tunis FUS Rabat	Al-Merrikh Stade Malien MO Béjaïa Mamelodi Sundowns Al-Ahli Tripoli Young Africans	TP Mazembe Étoile du Sahel	Medeama CF Mounana Stade Gabèsien Misr Lel Makkasa Kawkab Marrakech Sagrada Esperança

The eight winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage.