{"id":60191,"date":"2025-08-10T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory"},"modified":"2025-08-10T21:10:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T21:10:49","slug":"62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory","title":{"rendered":"62 Clubs to Fight for 2025\/2026 CAF Champions League Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Following Saturday\u2019s draw for the Preliminary and Second Preliminary Rounds of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2025\/26 at Azam Media Studios in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the competition for the most coveted title in African club football has officially begun.<\/p>\n<p>This season\u2019s campaign will feature a record 62 clubs from around the continent, highlighting the competition\u2019s increasing popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Top-ranked teams Al Ahly of Egypt and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, who have won record titles, have been given byes into the Second Preliminary Round, while defending champions Pyramids FC of Egypt will play APR of Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, the draw also produced a number of intriguing fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>Powerhouses from North Africa may meet early when the East End Lions of Sierra Leone play the US Monastirienne of Tunisia.<\/p>\n<p>The victor of this matchup will have a chance to play the Bibiani Gold Stars of Ghana and the Algerian heavyweights, JS Kabylie.<\/p>\n<p>While Benin\u2019s Dadje\u0300 FC and Libya\u2019s representative, Libya 1, compete for the opportunity to play Togo\u2019s ASCK or Morocco\u2019s RS Berkane, Liberia\u2019s FC Fassell will try to defeat Senegal\u2019s ASC Jaraaf in order to potentially meet Algeria\u2019s MC Alger.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, Zimbabwe\u2019s Simba Bhora takes on Eswatini\u2019s Nsingizini Hotspurs in a match that sets up a matchup with Botswana\u2019s Gaborone United \u2014 and eventually Tanzania\u2019s Simba SC \u2014 in the next round, while Nigeria\u2019s Remo Stars play Comoros\u2019 US Zilimadjou for the opportunity to play Sundowns.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the game between Namibia\u2019s African Stars and Vipers FC of Uganda is in the wings as Zambia\u2019s Power Dynamos take on Ivorian powerhouse ASEC Mimosas.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the match between Niger\u2019s Forces Arme\u0301es and Tunisian powerhouse Espe\u0301rance Sportive de Tunis (EST) will face Rahimo FC of Burkina Faso and AS Mangasport of Gabon.<\/p>\n<p>As CAF aims to encourage more clubs to participate, as evidenced by the record number of teams registered for the 2025\u201326 season, teams that withdraw in the first two rounds will get USD 100,000 this season to cover their logistical costs.<\/p>\n<p>First-leg matches in the Preliminary Round will take place from September 19\u201321, 2025, and second-leg matches will take place from September 26\u201328, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The first leg of the Second Preliminary Round takes place from October 17\u201319, and the second leg takes place from October 24\u201326.<\/p>\n<p>The knockout stage is scheduled to begin on March 13, 2026, while the Group Stage starts on November 21, 2025.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Following Saturday\u2019s draw for the Preliminary and Second Preliminary Rounds of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2025\/26 at Azam Media Studios in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the competition for the most coveted title in African club football has officially begun. This season\u2019s campaign will feature a record 62 clubs from around the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":60190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-60191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>62 Clubs to Fight for 2025\/2026 CAF Champions League Glory - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following Saturday\u2019s draw for the Preliminary and Second Preliminary Rounds of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 20 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"62 Clubs to Fight for 2025\/2026 CAF Champions League Glory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following Saturday\u2019s draw for the Preliminary and Second Preliminary Rounds of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 20 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-10T20:32:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-10T21:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754843917.458315.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1401\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1269\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"62 Clubs to Fight for 2025\/2026 CAF Champions League Glory\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-10T20:32:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-10T21:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\"},\"wordCount\":424,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754843917.458315.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/62-clubs-to-fight-for-2025-2026-caf-champions-league-glory\",\"name\":\"62 Clubs to Fight for 2025\/2026 CAF Champions League Glory - 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