All four South African clubs are amongst the 108 teams granted licences by CAF to be eligible to participate in the upcoming inter-club competitions.
Cape Town City and Mamelodi Sundowns will participate in the CAF Champions League, while Marumo Gallants and Royal AM will be involved in the CAF confederations cup.
The club licensing process for CAF club competitions is regulated through the different CAF codes and competition regulations, which state that all clubs (Licence Applicants) intending to participate in the CAF Interclubs competitions must undergo the club licensing process with their respective Member Association (Licensor) and be granted a license by the competent decision-making bodies.
The granting of a licence to the clubs endorses that each club has met the requirements set in the CAF Club Licensing regulations.
The CAF member association is the licensor and assesses each club according to five criteria: Sporting, Infrastructure, Personnel and Administrative, Legal, and Financial. For the current cycle, the deadline date for submission of all the licensing decisions and documents was 30 June 2022.
Each year, CAF, working with Member Associations and the Leagues embarks on a licensing process that focuses on enhancing the club football product.
A club licensing seminar was recently hosted by CAF in Egypt and Cairo and saw member associations, leagues, FIFA and sister Confederations meet to discuss the roadmap for the licensing system in Africa.
For the CAF Confederation Cup 2022/23 edition, a total of 50 clubs were granted a license at the level of their respective member association and will participate in the competition. Security Systems from Botswana decided to withdraw from the competition.
The first leg of the matches of the 1st preliminary round will be played from 9 September to 11, with the return matches scheduled to be played a week later. The aggregate winners will progress to the second round. The fixtures of the second round of the qualifiers will take place at the start of October.
