2026–27 CAF Champions League Preliminary Draw Date Announced

Rabat — The road to the 2026–27 CAF Champions League is about to take shape, and the starting gun now has a date.

According to Moroccan outlet El Botola, citing an official source within CAF’s Club Competitions Committee, the preliminary draw is penciled in for August 6 in Cairo, Egypt. One of African football’s most watched ceremonies will again unfold in the Egyptian capital, where clubs from across the continent learn whether their campaign begins with a gentle introduction or a brutal examination.

CAF plans to stage the draw once the club registration window closes and national associations have signed off on participating squads. Only then will the confederation lock in the names, matchups, and the first hurdles on the way to the group stage of Africa’s flagship club tournament.

Behind the scenes, there has been maneuvering. The Egyptian Football Association pushed for an increase in the number of clubs admitted to CAF’s interclub competitions, hoping to widen the door for its domestic contenders. CAF has turned that request down. El Botola reports that the Competitions Committee opted to keep the current format intact for 2026–27, resisting any temptation to tinker with a structure it clearly believes still works.

So the blueprint stays the same. The stakes stay the same. The margins, as always in African knockout football, will be thin.

Moroccan Representation

For Morocco, the picture is clear. RS Berkane and Maghreb de Fès will carry the country’s colors into next season’s CAF Champions League, both eyeing long runs on the continental stage. Berkane, already a familiar name in African competition, and Maghreb de Fès, eager to reassert themselves, will watch the Cairo ceremony with particular intensity. One ball drawn the wrong way can turn a dream into a gauntlet.

The preliminary draw will lay out the opening fixtures for every hopeful side, from seasoned contenders to ambitious debutants, all chasing a place in the group phase. On August 6 in Cairo, the map of the new African campaign will be drawn — and some clubs will know, in an instant, just how steep their path to glory really is.