The competition, initially announced in 2022 as the Africa Super League, was to involve 24 teams divided into three geographical regions and have a promotion-relegation system.

The competition was delayed from August to October 2023, renamed to the African Football League, and revised into an eight-team knockout format for its inaugural season.

This season is meant to be a precursor, as the originally announced format will be introduced starting in 2024–25.

If away goals were also equal, then extra time was not played and the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out.

The bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final), which was held on 2 September 2023, 16:00 GMT (19:00 local time, UTC+3), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.