The 2021–22 CAF Champions League group stage were played from 11 February to 3 April 2022. A total of 16 teams competed in the group stage to decide the eight places in the knockout stage of the 2021–22 CAF Champions League.[1]
The draw for the group stage was held on 28 December 2021, 11:30 GMT (13:30 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 winners of the second round of qualifying were drawn into four groups of four.
The teams were seeded by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons (CAF 5-year ranking points shown next to every team). Each group contained one team from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4, and each team was allocated to the positions in their group according to their pot.[2]
In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals of the knockout stage.
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations III. 20 & 21):[1]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
^ abHead-to-head points: Al Hilal 3, Al Merrikh 3. Head-to-head goal differences: Al Hilal 0, Al Merrikh 0. Head-to-head away goals: Al Hilal 1, Al Merrikh 0
^The Al Ahly v Al Merrikh match, originally scheduled to be played on 11 or 12 February 2022, was rescheduled to be played on 5 March 2022 due to Al Ahly's participation in the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates between 3 and 12 February 2022.
Mamelodi Sundowns
Al Ahly
Al Hilal
Raja CA
ES Sétif
Horoya
Espérance de Tunis
Jwaneng Galaxy
Petro de Luanda