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The CAF 5-Year Ranking is used by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to determine the number of clubs that each CAF member association may enter in Africa's club football competitions, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup. At present, those associations ranked in the top twelve may enter two sides into each of the two continental tournaments, while the remaining associations are limited to a single side in each competition.
Contents
Introduction of the ranking
Prior to 2004, CAF organised three club tournaments (the CAF Champions League, the African Cup Winners' Cup, and the CAF Cup) with each association allowed to enter a single side in each tournament.
Starting from the 2004 season, the Cup Winners' Cup and CAF Cup were combined into a new tournament, the CAF Confederation Cup. Rather than limiting all associations to just two positions in CAF tournaments, CAF decided to allow the leading nations two entries into the new tournament, and also allow them a second entry in the Champions League.
As with the UEFA ranking used for their club tournaments, the CAF ranking is based on the results obtained in each of the past five completed club seasons (each weighted equally). There are some differences, notably:
The initial ranking system
The initial classification (for 2004 tournaments) was made according to the performance of the associations in the previous 5 years (1998 to 2002) in club competitions held by the Confederation of African Football.
According to this system the associations selected were Tunisia (36 points), Egypt (31 points), Côte d'Ivoire (27 points), Morocco (24 points), South Africa (17 points), Algeria (17 points), Cameroon (14 points), Ghana (12 points), Angola (12 points), Nigeria (10 points), Congo DR (8 points), and Senegal (6 points).
Season 2005 controversy
In July 2004 the Confederation of African Football informed its members that the ranking system for admission to the various cups for the 2005 season would be done according to the same 1998-2002 ranking used for the 2004 season. It is unknown why CAF did not calculate a 1999-2003 ranking (following UEFA's practice of updating its rankings each season), as there would seem to have been enough time to do this. Since then, it has become CAF's policy to adopt a year older ranking for the competitions of the new season. So, for the 2012 season, rankings were based on results from 2006 to 2010.
Season 2011 change
In December 2010 CAF altered the ranking system, removing the components from the Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, and weighting more recent results more highly. For 2011 competitions, results from seasons 2005 to 2009 were still used, but the points from 2009 were multiplied by 5, from 2008 by 4 and so on.
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 on 2000, for awarding points in 2003. Since then the only change (added in 2005) has been the addition of criteria 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).
The table below shows the years during which the tournament was run (although for the CAF 5-year rankings only results since 1998 have counted). Since 2011 the Super Cup and FIFA World Cup Club have been excluded.
Weighting factor
Since the 2011 CAF competitions, when computing the rankings, points have been weighted according to the year of the results. For example, for the ranking points calculated based on performances in continental club championships for the period 2009–2013, the points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follow:
Note: CAF did not publish any tiebreaking criteria for determining the 12th ranked association. In 2012, Côte d'Ivoire received two entries in each tournament, while Angola and Zambia only received one entry in each. In 2013, Côte d'Ivoire received two entries in each tournament, while Libya only received one entry in each.
Ranking for 2017 CAF competitions
Ranking for 2017 CAF Champions League and 2017 CAF Confederation Cup will be based on results from each CAF tournament (Champions League and Confederation Cup) from 2011 to 2015.
Ranking for 2018 CAF competitions
Ranking for 2018 CAF Champions League and 2018 CAF Confederation Cup will be based on results from each CAF tournament (Champions League and Confederation Cup) from 2012 to 2016.
Club ranking
Club ranking is used for seeding in the CAF competitions.
Club results
Club results of the current season and previous five seasons.