Kaizer Chiefs are currently in 11th spot on the continent in the FIFA Club World Cup rankings while surprisingly Orlando Pirates do not feature in the top 30 and here is why that is the case.
Ahead of the inaugural 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the football governing body introduced an online system that ranks clubs in their respective confederations, as one of the paths to qualify.
CAF has been allocated four spots for the extended 32-team tournament in June next year, with two spots already booked by Al Ahly and Wydad Casablanca by virtue of winning the previous two editions of the CAF Champions League.
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The qualifying route via the rankings will award the third-ranked side qualification to the Club World Cup this season, a position currently held by Mamelodi Sundowns while the fourth team to make the global club showpiece from Africa will come from next season's CAF Champions League winner.
The online club ranking tool, which is updated after each round of qualifying matches by FIFA has currently enlisted the best 30 teams on the continent, with Al Ahly and Wydad ironically in first and second place.
From South Africa's perspective, after the third-placed Brazilians, Chiefs are the next PSL team in 11th spot and followed by AmaZulu in 23rd place.
There have been question marks on why Pirates do not feature on the list, with even Usuthu ahead of them.
Well, FIFA has taken into account results of each confederation's "premier club competition" for the previous four seasons, starting from the group stages, which means only results in CAF Champions League (from the group stages) were regarded, with points awarded as follows: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 3 points for progress in each stage of the tournament.
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Unfortunately for the Buccaneers, they have not qualified for the CAF Champions League group stages in the last four seasons, which means on the FIFA intuitive club ranking tool they have zero points.
The Glamour Boys in 11th spot, have a total of 28 points, all of which were amassed from the 2020/21 season where they reached the final of the CAF Champions League.
AmaZulu in 23rd spot have accumulated ten points, also based on points awarded during their historic CAF Champions League participation in the 2021/22 campaign, after bowing out in the group stages with two victories and a draw while the other three points were awarded for reaching the group phase.
However, Chiefs and AmaZulu cannot qualify for the Club World Cup via the ranking route this season, as they are currently not in the CAF Champions League and anyway they are way behind third-placed Sundowns who have 90 points.
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