# 2017 Arab Club Championship

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.

## Allocation of entries

The following team entries allocation was announced by the Union of Arab Football Associations on 20 June 2016. 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. 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.
Participation for 2017 Arab Club Championship :
* Allocated group stage slot(s)
* Allocated qualifying play-off slot
* Did not participate

### Notes

* ^ Qatar were allocated one group stage slot, but chose not to participate due to scheduling difficulties with other tournaments.
* ^ Kuwait were allocated one qualifying play-off slot, but could not participate due to FIFA's suspension of its football association.
* ^ Yemen were allocated one qualifying play-off slot, but did not participate due to the suspension of footballing activity in the country.
* ^ As the tournament's hosts (from the group stage onwards), Egypt were allocated two group stage slots as opposed to one, and Algeria were therefore allocated just one group stage slot rather than two.
* ^ Libya were allocated one qualifying play-off slot, but did not participate due to the suspension of footballing activity in the country.

## Teams

The following 20 teams from 18 associations entered the competition.

### Notes

* ^ Al-Wahda were a late replacement for Al-Ain (2015–16 UAE Pro-League runners-up and 2015–16 UAE President's Cup runners-up), who decided to withdraw from the tournament.
* ^ Not including Al-Faisaly's appearance in the cancelled 1990 edition.

## Venues

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 | CairoAlexandria |
| Al Salam Stadium | CairoAlexandria |
| Capacity: 30,000 | CairoAlexandria |

## Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.
| Stage | Round | Date |
| Qualifying play-off | Round 1 | 14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017 |
| Qualifying play-off | Round 2 | 14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017 |
| Qualifying play-off | Play-off round | 14 September 2016 – 4 March 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 2 | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |
| Group stage | Matchday 3 | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |
| Knockout stage | Semi-finals | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |
| Knockout stage | Final | 22 July – 6 August 2017 |

## 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.

### Preliminary round 1
#### Asia Zone

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Al-Riffa | 1–5 | Al-Ahed | 0–1 | 1–4 |

#### Africa Zone

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | DJI | DEK | VOL |
| 1 | ASAS Djibouti Télécom (H) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | — | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| 2 | Dekedaha | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | — | — | 0–0 |
| 3 | Volcan Club | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — | — | — |

#### Notes

* ^ ASAS Djibouti Télécom qualified via a drawing of lots.

### Preliminary round 2

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Asia Zone |||||
| Al-Ahed | 3–0 | Shabab Al-Khalil | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| Africa Zone |||||
| ASAS Djibouti Télécom | 1–2 | Al-Merrikh | 1–1 | 0–1 |

### Play-off round

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Asia Zone |||||
| Al-Jaish | 0–1 | Naft Al-Wasat | 0–0 | 0–1 |
| Al-Ahed | 6–1 | Fanja | 2–1 | 4–0 |
| Africa Zone |||||
| FC Tevragh-Zeina | 2–3 | Al-Merrikh | 0–1 | 2–2 |

## Group stage

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. The top team of each group along with the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.
* Tiebreakers
* points obtained in all group matches;goal difference in all group matches;number of goals scored in all group matches.
* If two or more teams were to be equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings would have been determined as follows:
* points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned.
* Times listed are UTC+2.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Al-Faisaly | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Al-Ahly | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | NA Hussein Dey | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | Al-Wahda | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Fath Union Sport | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 5 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Al-Ahed | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 5 | |
| 3 | Zamalek | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Al-Nassr | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | −5 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Espérance de Tunis | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Al-Merrikh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 4 | |
| 3 | Al-Hilal | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | −1 | 2 | |
| 4 | Naft Al-Wasat | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 1 | |

### Ranking of second-placed teams

The highest ranked second-placed team from the groups advanced to the knockout stage; the rest were eliminated.
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | A | Al-Ahly | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | B | Al-Ahed | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 5 | |
| 3 | C | Al-Merrikh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 4 | |

## Knockout stage

Matches were determined by a random draw.
| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 2 August – Alexandria | 2 August – Alexandria |
| Al-Ahly | 1 |
| Al-Ahly | 1 | 6 August – Alexandria | 6 August – Alexandria |
| Al-Faisaly | 2 | 6 August – Alexandria | 6 August – Alexandria |
| Al-Faisaly | 2 | Al-Faisaly | 2 |
| 3 August – Alexandria | 3 August – Alexandria | | Al-Faisaly | 2 |
| 3 August – Alexandria | 3 August – Alexandria | Espérance de Tunis (a.e.t.) | 3 |
| Fath Union Sport | 1 | Espérance de Tunis (a.e.t.) | 3 |
| Espérance de Tunis (a.e.t.) | 2 | | |

### Final
## Top scorers

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Mohamed Fouzair | Fath Union Sport | 3 |
| 2 | Amr Barakat | Al-Ahly | 2 |
| 2 | Ziyad Ahmed | Naft Al-Wasat | 2 |
| 2 | Akram Zuway | Al-Faisaly | 2 |
| 2 | Dominique Mendy | Al-Faisaly | 2 |
| 2 | Mohamad Haidar | Al-Ahed | 2 |
| 2 | Lamine Diakité | Fath Union Sport | 2 |
| 2 | Kelechi Osunwa | Al-Merrikh | 2 |
| 2 | Bakri Al-Madina | Al-Merrikh | 2 |
| 2 | Anice Badri | Espérance de Tunis | 2 |
| 2 | Saad Bguir | Espérance de Tunis | 2 |
| 2 | Taha Yassine Khenissi | Espérance de Tunis | 2 |

## Prize money

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.

## Media

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.

### Broadcasting

| Territory | Channel |
| Egypt | ONTV |
| Saudi Arabia | Al-Riyadiah |
| United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi TV |