CAF 5-year ranking


The CAF 5-year ranking system is used by the Confederation of African Football to determine the number of clubs that each member association may enter its club football competitions; the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. At present, those associations ranked in the top 12 may enter two teams into each of the two club competitions, while the remaining associations are limited to a single team in each competition.

Criteria for awarding points

CAF approved its basic criteria based on the criteria used in the election of the CAF Clubs of the 20th Century in 2000 for awarding points in 2003. This was changed in 2005 with the addition of a criterion that rewards clubs that advance to the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup. This methodology has also been used to create an all-time ranking for CAF clubs, adding the points that would have been obtained by each club based on its results since 1965.
For the rankings system, only results since 1998 have been counted with the CAF Super Cup and the FIFA World Cup Club excluded from the system since 2011. The table below shows the years during which the competitions were operated:

Weighting factor

Since 2011, points have been weighted according to the year of performance results when calculating the rankings. For the current ranking, the points calculated based on performances in CAF club competitions between 2020–21 and the 2024–25 season, the points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
  • 2024–25: × 5
  • 2023–24: × 4
  • 2022–23: × 3
  • 2021–22: × 2
  • 2020–21: × 1

Association ranking for the 2025–26 CAF club season

The association ranking for the 2025–26 CAF Champions League and the 2025–26 CAF Confederation Cup will be based on results from each CAF club competition from 2020–21 to the 2024–25 season.
;LegendCL: CAF Champions LeagueCC: CAF Confederation Cup≥: Associations points might increase on basis of its clubs performance in 2024–25 CAF club competitions
*

Association ranking for the 2026–27 CAF club season

The association ranking for the 2026–27 CAF Champions League and the 2026–27 CAF Confederation Cup will be based on results from each CAF club competition from 2021–22 to the 2025–26 season with the 2025–26 season currently underway.
;LegendCL: CAF Champions LeagueCC: CAF Confederation CupAssociations in bold are still active in 2025–26 CAF club competitions

Club ranking for the 2025–26 CAF club season

The club ranking is used for seeding in the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.Pending equality in ranking points, the team receiving more points in the most recent season is considered as the higher-ranked team.
The club ranking for the 2025–26 CAF Champions League and the 2025–26 CAF Confederation Cup is based on results from each CAF club competition from the 2020–21 to the 2024–25 seasons.
RankClub2020–21
2021–22
2022–23
2023–24
2024–25
Total
1#expr: 6*1 + 5*2 + 6*3 + 6*4 + 4*5

Club ranking for the 2026–27 CAF club season

The club ranking is used for seeding in the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.Pending equality in ranking points, the team receiving more points in the most recent season is considered as the higher-ranked team.
The club ranking for the 2026–27 CAF Champions League and the 2026–27 CAF Confederation Cup is to be based on results from each CAF club competition from the 2021–22 to the 2025–26 seasons.
;Legend
RankClub2021–22
2022–23
2023–24
2024–25
2025–26
Total
1#expr: 5*1 + 6*2 + 6*3 + 4*4 + 1*5

Historical rankings since 2011

;Legend
  • — No rank
Note: For associations which have the same number of points, they are listed as having the same rank as CAF did not publish any tiebreaking criteria. There was a tie for determining the 12th ranked association on two occasions:
  • In 2012, Ivory Coast received two entries in each tournament, while Angola and Zambia only received one entry in each.
  • In 2013, Ivory Coast received two entries in each tournament, while Libya only received one entry in each.

Club results

Club results of the previous 5 seasons and the current season based on the current points system are as follows:
If a team was disqualified, they will not obtain any ranking points. For example, ES Sétif were disqualified from the 2016 CAF Champions League during the group stage. As a result, they did not obtain a position for that edition and thus were not counted when calculating the ranking for Algeria.