CAF Champions League Explained: Format, History, Qualification and How to Read Africa's Top Club Competition on RubiScore

The CAF Champions League is the top club competition of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), contested each season by the league champions of its member associations and, from the strongest leagues, their runners-up. Fixtures, group tables and two-legged results on RubiScore follow it from the preliminary rounds in September to the final in May.

This explainer covers where the competition came from, how clubs qualify, how the rounds work, how it connects to the CAF Confederation Cup and FIFA's club competitions, and how its numbers should be read. Fixtures, results, lineups and match timelines can be followed at https://rubiscore.com, and RubiScore's competition pages keep each season's group tables and knockout results together.

The Competition at a Glance

Where Did the CAF Champions League Come From?

The competition began in 1964 as the African Cup of Champions Clubs. Its first edition ran into early 1965 and ended with Oryx Douala of Cameroon beating Stade Malien of Mali 2–1 in a one-off final.

Until the mid-1990s the title was decided by knockout ties. In 1997 CAF added a group stage and renamed the tournament the CAF Champions League. That group stage held eight clubs in two groups; from 2017 it was expanded to 16 clubs in four groups of four, with quarter-finals added after it.

The calendar changed too. Seasons used to be played within one calendar year, but a transitional 2018-19 edition moved the competition onto a calendar that spans two years. The final has also changed shape. CAF switched to a single-match final from the 2019-20 season, then announced in July 2022 that it would return to two legs, after that year's final was staged at Wydad AC's home stadium in Casablanca, where Wydad beat Al Ahly 2–0. Every final since 2023 has been two-legged.

Anyone comparing seasons in RubiScore's competition history should keep these changes in mind: a title won through eight-club groups and a single final is not the same route as one won through 16-club groups and two-legged knockout rounds.

How Do Clubs Qualify?

Every member association can enter its league champion. The 12 associations with the best results in CAF club competitions over the previous five seasons, measured by the CAF 5-year ranking, may also enter their league runners-up. The ranking draws on results in both the Champions League and the Confederation Cup, with recent seasons counting for more. The holders qualify automatically, but an association is normally limited to two clubs.

For 2026-27, CAF's entry list contained 24 clubs from 12 two-entry countries, among them Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Nigeria, plus 40 countries with a single representative.

How Does the Format Work?

  1. First preliminary round. Two-legged ties. Some highly ranked clubs receive a bye; in 2026-27, the holders Mamelodi Sundowns started in the second round.
  2. Second preliminary round. Two more legs, after which 16 clubs remain.
  3. Group stage. Four groups of four play home and away, six matches per club. The top two in each group advance.
  4. Quarter-finals. Group winners meet runners-up, the runners-up host the first leg, and clubs from the same group cannot meet.
  5. Semi-finals and final. Both played over two legs.

Two rules set CAF apart from Europe. First, the away goals rule still applies: if the aggregate score is level, the club that scored more goals away from home goes through. UEFA abolished the rule in its club competitions from 2021-22. Second, if away goals are also level, the tie goes straight to a penalty shoot-out, with no extra time. The rule decided the 2024-25 semi-final between Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly: after 0–0 in Pretoria and 1–1 in Cairo, Sundowns went through on away goals.

Group tables have their own logic. Clubs level on points are separated first by head-to-head results, including away goals in those matches, before overall goal difference is considered.

Why Does the Season Cross Two Calendar Years?

CAF's calendar for 2026-27 shows the typical shape. The first preliminary round was played in September 2026, and the second round's return legs are due on 23–25 October. The group stage runs from 27–29 November 2026 to 22–24 January 2027, the quarter-finals and semi-finals follow between late February and mid-April, and the final is scheduled within a window of 9–31 May 2027.

National-team tournaments can interrupt that rhythm. In 2025-26 the group stage played two matchdays in late November 2025, paused for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and resumed on 23–25 January 2026.

How Is It Linked to the CAF Confederation Cup?

The CAF Confederation Cup is Africa's second-tier club competition, played in the same calendar windows with a similar format. Until 2022-23, clubs knocked out in the Champions League's last qualifying round dropped into a Confederation Cup play-off round. CAF scrapped that play-off from the 2023-24 season, so winners of the Confederation Cup's own second round now go straight into its group stage, and that drop-down route no longer exists.

The two competitions meet in the CAF Super Cup, a single match between their winners. Pyramids, the 2024-25 Champions League winners, beat Confederation Cup holders RS Berkane 1–0 in Cairo in October 2025.

What Do the Winners Qualify For?

The prize is also financial. For 2026-27, CAF lists USD 6 million for the winners and USD 100,000 for each club eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

Who Has Won It Most?

Al Ahly hold the record with 12 titles, the most recent in 2024, when they beat Espérance over two legs. Zamalek have five, and with Ismaily and Pyramids also among the winners, Egyptian clubs have won the competition 19 times.

The two most recent finals told different stories. Pyramids won their first title in 2024-25, beating Mamelodi Sundowns 3–2 on aggregate after a 1–1 draw in Pretoria and a 2–1 win in Cairo. Sundowns returned to the final in 2025-26 and beat AS FAR of Morocco 2–1 on aggregate, winning 1–0 at Loftus Versfeld and drawing 1–1 in Rabat on 24 May 2026. It was their second title after 2016 and made them the first South African club to win it twice; Orlando Pirates won in 1995.

The 2026-27 edition is in its second preliminary round at the time of writing, with no group-stage matches yet played.

How Should the CAF Champions League Be Read in Data?

Fixtures and results, group tables and match timelines on RubiScore record what happened. A few habits make the numbers fairer to compare:

  1. Read the tie, not the leg. The first leg shapes how both teams approach the second, and away goals add a layer. In the 2026 final, Sundowns took a 1–0 lead from the home leg, and once Teboho Mokoena equalised in Rabat, his away goal meant AS FAR needed two more goals to win the tie, not one. In 2018, Espérance lost the first leg of the final 3–1 in Egypt and won the second 3–0 at home to take the title 4–3 on aggregate. Match timelines show when the goals that changed an aggregate arrived.
  2. Treat group tables as small samples. Six matches per club means a single away draw can decide second place, and a group record is a weak guide to knockout prospects: both 2026 finalists, Sundowns and AS FAR, finished second in their groups. Check head-to-head results before goal difference.
  3. Split home and away. Distances are long and flights limited. In 2023, AFP reported that clubs from southern Africa often fly north via Doha or Dubai, and before the 2026 final's second leg, ESPN reported that Sundowns' charter flight had been significantly delayed by a late landing permit. Heat, humidity and pitch conditions also vary between venues, so home and away records should be read separately.
  4. Be careful with cross-league comparisons. A club that dominates its domestic league may face very different opposition in Africa, and head-to-head records between clubs from different countries are often short. The CAF 5-year ranking gives better context for league strength than domestic points totals.
  5. Match the continental calendar to domestic seasons. Preliminary ties can come early in a domestic season, knockout rounds overlap with title races, and breaks such as the 2025-26 pause can leave weeks between group matches. Club pages that show domestic and continental fixtures together help reveal a team's workload.

What the Results Really Show

The CAF Champions League rewards control over two legs more than a single performance, and its record book spans very different formats, from a one-off final in 1965 to two-legged finals today. Read on RubiScore with those rules in mind, from away goals and six-match groups to long journeys and a two-year calendar, its results say more about how Africa's leading clubs cope away from home than any single scoreline.