With the 2026/27 season ahead of us, Mamelodi Sundowns are going into the new campaign at the top of CAF’s five-year ranking after overtaking Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Sundowns reaped the rewards for winning the 2025/26 CAF Champions League and reaching the final the previous campaign and the semi-finals in all of the last four editions.
As a consequence, and with Al Ahly’s weaker results in recent years, Masandawana moved to the top of the ranking.
With Ahly not qualifying for the Champions League in 2026/27, Sundowns could even extend their lead with another strong CAF showing.
Meanwhile, Esperance de Tunis, RS Berkane and USM Alger complete Africa’s top five after the latter won last season’s CAF Confederation Cup, while the other two were CAFCL semi-finalists.
Orlando Pirates have dropped to 19th place (20 points) after failing to make the CAFCL group stages last season, with Stellenbosch FC in 24th (14.5 points), Marumo Gallants in 37th (6 points) and Kaizer Chiefs in 38th (5 points).
The complete top 10 in CAF’s five-year ranking:
- Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) – 73 points
- Al Ahly (Egypt) – 66 points
- Esperance (Tunisia) – 58 points
- RS Berkane (Morocco) – 57 points
- USM Alger (Algeria) – 52 points
- Zamalek (Egypt) – 49 points
- Pyramids (Egypt) – 48 points
- ASFAR (Morocco) – 41 points
- Al-Hilal (Sudan) – 39 points
- CR Belouizdad (Algeria) – 38 points
How does the ranking work?
For the new calculation of the CAF ranking, points collected over the last five years between 2020/21 and 2025/26 must be used.
All points collected for the 2025/26 season will be multiplied by five, while this coefficient goes down by one the further season you go back – meaning a multiplication of four for points in 2024/25, three for 2023/24, two 2022/23 and just one for 2021/22.
The winners of the CAF Champions League receive six points, in this case Sundowns, while runners-up ASFAR got five points. Esperance de Tunis and RS Berkane, who were beaten in the semi-finals, received four points, respectively. The quarter-finalists got three points, while all teams finishing in third spot in the group stages got two, and the fourth-placed teams got just one.
Meanwhile, the points allocation for the CAF Confederations Cup is similar, with winners USM Alger receiving five points, runners-up Zamalek got four points, the semi-finalists CR Belouizdad and Olympic Safi get three points, the quarter-finalists two points, the group stage third-placed teams one point and the group stage bottom-placed teams 0.5 points.
As a consequence, Sundowns collected 30 points (6×5) in 2024/25, ASFAR 25 points (5×5), Esperance and RS Berkane 20 points (5×4), while CAF Confederations Cup winners USM Alger received 25 points (5×5). Points collected in 2020/21 fell out of the five-year cycle, meaning Chiefs lost their points from reaching the CAFCL final.
Sundowns’ overall tally is calculated by 3×1 (2021/22), plus 4×2 (2022/23), plus 4×3 (2023/24), plus 5×4 (2024/25), plus 6×5 (2025/26) equalling to 73 points overall.
Story by David Kappel (@kappilinho).
Did you know that the iDiski Times Digital Newspaper is completely free! Download it now by clicking the button below or fill in the form to have it sent to you every week.