African Champions League gets semis, more money

The African Champions League has been expanded to include a semifinal round next year while the prize money for the winner has been increased to a $1million, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced in Accra on Saturday.

The last four years has seen an eight-team league format with two group winners qualifying automatically for the final. But CAF, in an attempt to add more interest into the event, will now have a set of semifinal matches after the completion of the group phase of the competition. The winner of each group will play the runner-up in the other.

The matches will be played home and away over two legs in November. CAF have also changed the rules to determine group winners in the case of teams being level on points. Instead of goal difference, the first deciding criteria will now be head-to-head records, as is the case in the European Champions League.

Had the new formula been applied this year, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa rather than Esperance of Tunisia would have qualified for final from group A.

CAF, who are to sign a new television and marketing contract for the African Champions League with French marketing firm Groupe Jean-Claude Darmon in February, said the financial rewards for the Champions League would be considerably increased.

As well as the $1million prize for the winner, the runners-up will get $700 000 and the losing semifinalists $450 000 each. The other prizes are $275,000 for the third placed group finishers and $200,000 each for the teams that finish bottom of each group.

This year's Champions League title is being decided on Sunday when Hearts of Oak from Ghana play Esperance in the second leg of the final in Accra. Hearts lead 2-1 from the first leg in Tunis two weeks ago.