Orlando Pirates have been dealt a significant blow ahead of the 2026/27 CAF Champions League, as the club’s current 19th-place ranking in CAF’s five-year coefficient standings means they will once again have to navigate two qualifying rounds just to reach the group stage. Despite winning the Betway Premiership title, the Buccaneers missed out on a top-10 spot that would have earned them a bye into the second preliminary round. Their domestic rivals, Mamelodi Sundowns, have been spared those early hurdles, securing a later entry into the Champions League through their participation in the CAF Super Cup against USM Alger and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
For the Soweto giants, this early start adds another layer of difficulty to a continental campaign that has been marked by frustration in recent years. Orlando Pirates have featured in the CAF Champions League in three of the last four seasons but have only reached the group stage once. Painful preliminary-round exits to Jwaneng Galaxy and Saint-Éloi Lupopo have haunted the club, with last season’s elimination to the Congolese side proving especially bitter despite the club having completed a domestic treble. That inconsistency has kept them from climbing higher in the rankings.
CAF’s club rankings are calculated using performances over the previous five seasons, determining both seeding and which clubs receive byes into the second preliminary round. Only the top