Mamelodi Sundowns will again face the difficult task of going up against top-ranked North African clubs in the group stages of this season's CAF Champions League.
Sundowns booked their passage to the group stages of the continental competition in emphatic fashion with a 15-1 aggregate win over minnows La Passe.
Now according to CAF's five-Year ranking system used to determine the seeded clubs ahead of the group stages, the Brazilians have found themselves falling into Pot 2 with 46 points.
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Pot 1 has the top four ranked clubs – Al Ahly (78), Wydad Casablanca (71), Esperance (58), and Raja Casablanca (54) who have all progressed to the group stages.
With fifth placed RS Berkane (54) not involved in the Champions' League group stages it leaves Sundowns (46) as the top ranked club in Pot 2 which also has Zamalek (43), Horoya (31), and Petro (31).
Pot 3 has Simba (28), CR Belouizdad (27), JS Kabylie (22), and Al Hilal (19,5) while Pot 4 has Coton Sport, El Merreikh, and Vipers.
The last team in Pot 4 will either be AS Vita or RC Kadiogo with the two teams due to play later this week.
With all teams in Pot 1 from North Africa it means Sundowns will face one of them and then any from Pot 3 which has three clubs from North Africa and any of those from Pot 4 (which has El Merreikh from Sudan).
Last year, Sundowns came out tops in a group featuring three North African clubs in Al Ahly (Egypt) and the Sudanese pair of AL Hilal and Al Merreikh but then came stuck in the quarterfinals against Petro du Luanda from Angola.
The previous year they had two North African clubs in their group – CR Belouizdad (Algeria) and Al Hilal and again came top of the group just like they did when they had in the 2019/20 season when they had Wydad Casablanca (Morocco) and USM Alger (Algeria).
With the group matches only due to start in February next year, the draw will be conducted next month in Cairo.
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