CAF Champions League 2026-27: groups, fixtures and how the standings work

The CAF Champions League is the continental tournament for Africa's top clubs, and CAF describes its trophy as the most prestigious club football title on the continent. The 2026-27 edition now has its sixteen group-stage teams. The draw was held on Wednesday 28 October 2026 at the headquarters of the Egyptian Football Association in Cairo. Here you will find the four groups, the six matchday windows from November to January, the knockout calendar up to the finals in May 2027, and the rules that will order each group's standings table from matchday 1 on 27-29 November.

CAF Champions League 2026-27 groups

Seeding used four pots, and every group received exactly one club from each of them. That kept the four top seeds apart: Espérance, RS Berkane, Pyramids and Zamalek all lead a different group. The table lists each club with its country, pot by pot.

Groups as listed by CAF, data as of 3 November 2026. Eleven countries are represented. Five of them have two clubs each: Angola, Tunisia, Egypt, Tanzania and Morocco. Only the Angolan pair, Petro Atlético and Wiliete, share a group; the two Tunisian clubs were split between A and B, the Egyptian ones between B and D, the Tanzanian ones between B and C, and the Moroccan ones between C and D. Algeria, Mauritania, South Africa, Cameroon, Sudan and Guinea each send one club.

How a group table is ranked

Inside a group, each club meets the other three twice, once at home and once away, across six matchdays. A win earns 3 points, a draw 1 and a defeat 0. Only the first two places count: the winner and the runner-up of every group reach the quarter-finals, eight clubs in total.

Level on points? The head-to-head record between the tied clubs is checked first, starting with the points they took off each other and then the goal difference in those meetings. Further down the list come goal difference and goals scored over all group matches, and if nothing separates the clubs after that, lots are drawn. Before the opening weekend every club is on zero, so the first standings with real numbers arrive after 27-29 November.

Season calendar: matchdays and knockout rounds

CAF published the full calendar on 2 July 2026. Qualifying opened with the first preliminary round on 4-6 September, and the second preliminary round ended on 23-25 October, a few days before the draw. From here the dates look like this:

Every group round is a three-day window, and CAF has released windows rather than fixed kick-off times. Matchdays 1 to 3 fall before Christmas; after a gap from 20 December to 8 January, the last three rounds are played on consecutive weekends in January. The eight quarter-finalists are known on 22-24 January, roughly a month before the first knockout legs. For the finals, the official information so far is the window between 9 and 31 May 2027.

Group A and Group B fixtures by matchday

Pairings for these two groups have been published round by round. The home club is named first.

Group A

• Matchday 1: Espérance v Wiliete; Petro Atlético v Nouadhibou
• Matchday 2: Nouadhibou v Espérance; Wiliete v Petro Atlético
• Matchday 3: Espérance v Petro Atlético; Wiliete v Nouadhibou
• Matchday 4: Petro Atlético v Espérance; Nouadhibou v Wiliete
• Matchday 5: Wiliete v Espérance; Nouadhibou v Petro Atlético
• Matchday 6: Espérance v Nouadhibou; Petro Atlético v Wiliete

Group B

• Matchday 1: Zamalek v Club Africain; Young Africans v MC Alger
• Matchday 2: Club Africain v Young Africans; MC Alger v Zamalek
• Matchday 3: Club Africain v MC Alger; Zamalek v Young Africans
• Matchday 4: MC Alger v Club Africain; Young Africans v Zamalek
• Matchday 5: Club Africain v Zamalek; MC Alger v Young Africans
• Matchday 6: Zamalek v MC Alger; Young Africans v Club Africain

MC Alger's route through Group B

Mouloudia have three home dates, on matchdays 2, 4 and 5, and three trips, on matchdays 1, 3 and 6. Their campaign starts away to Young Africans on 27-29 November and finishes away to Zamalek on 22-24 January. Zamalek visit early, on 4-6 December. Club Africain are faced twice in a row, first away on 18-20 December and then at home on 8-10 January, on either side of the winter gap. The Zamalek games bring together two former champions of Africa: the Egyptian club holds five titles, while MC Alger won theirs in 1976. Each edition and its winner appear in our full list of African club champions.

Mouloudia had to come from behind to reach this stage. They lost the first leg of the second preliminary round 2-0 to Nigeria's Rangers International in Abeokuta, and the return leg at the Ali La Pointe Stadium in Algiers on Friday 23 October 2026 was still goalless at half-time. Chahreddine Boukholda scored after 58 minutes, Mohamed Bangoura added a second six minutes from time, and Soufiane Bayazid found the net three minutes into stoppage time: 3-0 on the night, 3-2 on aggregate.

The competition on 1xBet

The tournament has a dedicated page in the pre-match line: CAF Champions League betting at 1xBet. In the 1X2 football market, 1 is the home or first-named team, X is a draw and 2 is the second team. Double chance covers two outcomes with one selection: 1X for a home win or a draw, 12 for a win by either side, 2X for an away win or a draw. Matches in progress across all football competitions sit in the in-play football section.

Read also

• CAF Champions League winners: the complete roll of honour
• Champions League winners: every champion since 1956
• Algerian league champions: honours list and records