CAF Confederation Cup Football: Champions, Prize Money and How Clubs Qualify

The CAF Confederation Cup is Africa's second club football competition, created in 2004 by merging the African Cup Winners' Cup, founded in 1975, and the CAF Cup, introduced in 1992. Domestic cup winners and eligible league qualifiers enter through places allocated to their associations. USM Alger won the 2025/26 edition, beating Zamalek 8-7 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate, with the second leg played in Cairo on 16 May 2026. South African soccer supporters can trace local involvement through Orlando Pirates' finals in 2015 and 2022.

Domestic cup winners compete for continental honours alongside eligible league qualifiers. The competition's history includes every winner since Hearts of Oak lifted the first trophy in 2004, qualification routes for clubs from Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Nairobi or Kampala, the prize money that doubled in 2026, and a country by country record of how our clubs have done. The live table, fixtures and results sit above.

Who Won the 2026 CAF Confederation Cup Final?

USM Alger won the 2025/26 CAF Confederation Cup final, edging Zamalek 8-7 on penalties once the two legs had finished level at 1-1 on aggregate. The Algerian club took the first leg 1-0, Zamalek answered with a 1-0 win of their own in the second leg in Cairo on 16 May 2026, and the shootout continued into sudden death. It was USM Alger's second Confederation Cup, three years after their first in 2023, placing them among the clubs with two titles, one behind the record of three through the 2026 final.

Zamalek deserve a full share of the credit for that final. The Cairo club won the Confederation Cup in 2019 and again in 2024, and the 2026 final took them to within a single kick of a third title, which would have matched the record held by RS Berkane and CS Sfaxien through the 2026 final. So, in my opinion, the fair reading of that final is two of North Africa's most accomplished cup sides separated by the thinnest margin the game allows, rather than one club falling short of the other over two careful, tight legs.

The trophy itself is newer than many fans realise. CAF unveiled a fresh Confederation Cup design on 25 May 2025, standing 45 cm tall and weighing between 8 and 10 kg, so the clubs lifting it now are holding silverware that did not exist when RS Berkane began their run of titles in 2020. For readers south of the Sahara, the more pressing question is when a club from our side of the continent will next get their hands on it, and that thread runs through everything that follows.

Who Has Won the Confederation Cup Every Year Since 2004?

Twenty three editions were played between 2004 and 2026, and the table below lists every winner by the year its final was decided. Through the 2026 final, clubs from North Africa had won 18 of them, while the other five titles went to Hearts of Oak of Ghana in 2004, Stade Malien of Mali in 2009, AC Léopards of Congo in 2012, and TP Mazembe of DR Congo in 2016 and 2017. That is the statistic I would put in front of any club director south of the Sahara with serious ambitions in the competition, because it shows both the size of the task and that it has been done.

The run of North African winners is the defining pattern of the modern era. Every edition from 2018 to 2026 was won by a club from Morocco, Egypt or Algeria, with RS Berkane, Zamalek, USM Alger and Raja Casablanca sharing those nine trophies between them. But, the early years were far more open, and the very first final was an all Ghanaian affair between Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, a reminder that West African clubs were part of the story from the opening night.

Reading the winners table is straightforward once you know one detail. Since the late 2010s the competition has run across two calendar years, so a title listed under 2024 belongs to the 2023/24 season, and the 2026 entry is the 2025/26 campaign that USM Alger won. Two finals fell in consecutive calendar years in 2018 and 2019 as the competition moved to its current timing, which is why Raja Casablanca and Zamalek appear one after the other, and why every year from 2004 to 2026 carries exactly one champion.

How Does the CAF Confederation Cup Work?

The Confederation Cup is open to the domestic cup winners of all 54 CAF member associations, plus the club that finished third in the league in each of the 12 associations ranked highest in CAF's five year ranking. In plain English, there are two doors into the competition: win your country's cup, or finish third in one of Africa's strongest leagues. A club in a country outside that top 12 has the cup as its main door, which is why national cup finals in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi and Kampala carry so much weight for the following season.

Confederation Cup hopefuls first negotiate qualifying ties with a home fixture and an away fixture. The removal of Champions League transfers in 2023/24 meant that all group places would be earned within Confederation Cup qualifying. The draw distributes 16 qualifiers across four sections, with each entrant facing its three group opponents twice to complete a six fixture programme. For African cup winners making that journey, travel planning and squad depth matter alongside technical quality.

The top two in each group go through to the quarter finals, and from there the competition becomes a knockout run of two legged ties through the quarter finals and semi finals before the final. When a tie finishes level on aggregate, it is settled under the rules CAF sets for that season, and the 2026 final is a reminder that penalties can decide the whole thing. So, a club does not need to dominate its group to win the trophy; it needs to finish in the top two, and then to manage three knockout rounds with long journeys across the continent between legs.

How Has the Confederation Cup Final Changed Over the Years?

The Confederation Cup final has mostly been a two legged tie, but the finals of 2020, 2021 and 2022 were single matches at venues chosen in advance. The two legged format resumed in 2023, and the 2026 final between USM Alger and Zamalek was played over two legs, with the second played in Cairo on 16 May 2026. In my opinion, the two leg version suits the competition, because it rewards clubs that can win at home and hold their nerve away.

The change matters when you look back through old results. A single match final shows one scoreline, while a two legged final needs reading as a pair, and as I wrote when covering Confederation Cup results, the aggregate is what explains who lifted the trophy. If you are comparing finals across the years, check how many games each one involved before drawing conclusions about how close it was, because a 1-1 aggregate over two legs and a 1-1 draw in a single match can tell very different stories about the two clubs involved.

How Much Prize Money Does the Confederation Cup Winner Get?

The Confederation Cup winner receives $4m from 2026, after CAF announced in March 2026 that the prize would double from the $2m paid in the 2023 to 2025 editions. The runners up rise from $1m to $2m, so even the losing finalist now earns what the champions took home only a few seasons earlier. In my opinion, for a lot of clubs across the continent, a sum like that could reshape a budget for several seasons, which changes how seriously a domestic cup run is planned from the first round onwards.

This is why the competition deserves more attention from mid sized clubs in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. A strong national cup run used to be a route to continental football and some prestige; it is now also a route to a prize that can pay for wider scouting and a deeper squad for the next campaign. It could be argued that the doubled prize gives a cup winner from any of the five nations a genuine financial reason to treat the group stage with the same focus as a league title race.

Which Clubs and Countries Have Won the Most Confederation Cup Titles?

RS Berkane of Morocco and CS Sfaxien of Tunisia share the record of three Confederation Cup titles each through the 2026 final. Sfaxien set the early standard with wins in 2007, 2008 and 2013, and Berkane matched them in the modern era with titles in 2020, 2022 and 2025. Both clubs collected their trophies over relatively short spells, which tells you how much continuity in a squad and in a coaching set up counts in a competition that stretches over many months and many long trips between very different climates.

Through the 2026 final, Morocco led with eight titles, followed by Tunisia with five and Egypt with three. Algeria and DR Congo had two each, and Ghana, Mali and Congo had one apiece. TP Mazembe supplied both of DR Congo's titles with consecutive wins in 2016 and 2017, the most recent triumphs for a club from south of the Sahara through the 2026 final, while USM Alger provided both of Algeria's, in 2023 and 2026. Morocco's winners through 2026 include AS FAR, FUS Rabat, MAS Fès, Raja Casablanca and RS Berkane. Their title years were 2005 for AS FAR, 2010 for FUS Rabat, 2011 for MAS Fès, 2018 and 2021 for Raja Casablanca, and 2020, 2022 and 2025 for RS Berkane.

The Confederation Cup records give supporters across our five nations a practical question: how can their clubs turn continental finals into titles? In my opinion, it comes down to squad depth for a long group stage and to keeping a cup winning squad together for the following season, which the larger prize now makes much easier to justify. The East African finals of 2023 and 2025, and the South African finals before them, show that clubs from our regions can reach the last two, and turning a final into a title is the step that remains.

How Is the Confederation Cup Different From the CAF Champions League?

The CAF Champions League is Africa's top club competition, built mainly around league champions, while the Confederation Cup is the second competition, built around domestic cup winners and third placed league clubs. The two run side by side through the same season with a similar shape of qualifying rounds, groups and two legged knockouts. So, fans comparing Champions League and Confederation Cup are really comparing who gets in and what is at stake, rather than how the matches themselves are played on the pitch.

From 2023/24, the two competitions have separate qualifying paths, following the removal of the Champions League crossover into Confederation Cup qualifying. A Champions League qualifying defeat therefore does not provide entry to the Confederation Cup. Domestic qualification and the places allocated to each association explain how clubs enter.

The Confederation Cup winner also earns a place in the CAF Super Cup against the Champions League winner. CAF determines the venue, and hosting arrangements have varied: the 2017 Super Cup was played at Champions League winner Mamelodi Sundowns' home ground in Pretoria, while the 2023 and 2024 editions were staged in Saudi Arabia. Winning the Confederation Cup therefore brings another continental trophy opportunity, with the location confirmed for the relevant edition.

How Have Clubs From Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda Fared?

Through the 2026 final, South African clubs had made three Confederation Cup finalist appearances. Orlando Pirates got there in 2015 and again in 2022, and SuperSport United reached the 2017 final, which TP Mazembe won to complete their consecutive titles of 2016 and 2017. For PSL clubs, those runs set the benchmark: through the 2026 final, South Africa was still seeking the country's first Confederation Cup title, something the doubled prize money makes even more attractive for clubs in the league.

Ghana has a proud record, because Hearts of Oak won the very first Confederation Cup in 2004, beating Asante Kotoko in an all Ghanaian final. It remains Ghana's only title through the 2026 final, and the meeting of the country's two biggest clubs on a continental stage is a reference point that Ghanaian supporters still bring up in every conversation about African club football. The cup winners of the Ghana Premier League carry that history with them, and, in my opinion, the 2004 final is the best argument for Ghanaian clubs treating the competition as a genuine route to silverware.

Through the 2026 final, Nigeria's best Confederation Cup result was a final, reached by Dolphins in 2005, when they met AS FAR of Morocco and finished as runners up. NPFL clubs enter mainly through the national cup, so Nigerian supporters who want to see their club in the group stage should follow the Federation Cup as closely as the league. That being said, the 2005 run showed that a Nigerian club can go all the way to the last two, and the prize money now on offer gives the next NPFL cup winner a stronger reason to aim just as high.

Kenyan and Ugandan readers tend to follow the competition through East Africa as a whole, and the closest reference points are in Tanzania. Young Africans reached the 2023 final, where USM Alger won the title, and Simba reached the 2025 final against RS Berkane, giving Dar es Salaam two finalists in three seasons. For clubs from the FKF Premier League and the Uganda Premier League, those runs are the regional proof that an East African side can reach the final, and a useful guide to how a neighbour builds a squad for the long group stage.

How Do Clubs From the Five Nations Qualify for the Confederation Cup?

Clubs from all five nations reach the Confederation Cup mainly by winning their domestic cup. In Nigeria that means the Federation Cup, in Ghana the FA Cup, in Kenya the FKF Cup and in Uganda the Uganda Cup, while South African clubs also enter through their national cup competition. So, if your club is out of the league title race, a cup run is the most direct way to put it on the continental map for the following season, and the cup final itself becomes a match with a continental place riding on it.

The second route depends on CAF's five year ranking. If a country sits among the 12 highest ranked associations, its third placed league club also earns a place, and the ranking moves as clubs from that country perform in CAF competitions, so continental results now shape how many places a league receives later. From 2023/24, eliminated Champions League entrants no longer cross into the Confederation Cup.

How Do You Read the Confederation Cup Table, Fixtures and Results?

Each Confederation Cup group contains four clubs whose points determine their order: a victory adds three points, while a drawn match gives each side one; finishing first or second secures quarter final qualification. The Caf Confederation Cup table shows played, won, drawn, lost, goals and points for every group, and South African readers will recognise it as the log under another name. When clubs finish level on points, CAF's tiebreakers decide the order, and results between the tied clubs usually matter before overall goal difference, so check those meetings before assuming who goes through.

The Caf Confederation Cup fixtures list every match from qualifying to the final with its date, venue and kick off time, and the Caf Confederation Cup results record each score as it comes in. In the knockout rounds, read the second leg alongside the first, because the aggregate decides the tie, and a narrow away defeat in the first leg can still leave a club well placed. Both modules update after every match, so they always hold the current picture of this season.

The Caf Confederation Cup stats module tracks top scorers and other player numbers across the season, and it is the quickest way to spot which African players are carrying their clubs, from North African regulars to cup winners from our five nations. Our Caf Confederation Cup predictions attach an estimated probability and a reference price to each match call. These assessments express uncertainty; compare their reasoning against group standings and recorded scores.

What Time Do Confederation Cup Matches Kick Off, and Where Can You Watch?

Confederation Cup matches are played in host cities from Morocco to Tanzania, so the same kick off lands at different hours across our five nations. Ghana runs on GMT, Nigeria on WAT, which is one hour ahead, South Africa on SAST, two hours ahead, and Kenya and Uganda on EAT, three hours ahead. So, a match kicking off at 16:00 GMT starts at 17:00 WAT, 18:00 SAST and 19:00 EAT, and the fixtures module lists each time with its zone so you can check the conversion before planning your evening.

Broadcast rights for the Confederation Cup can differ from one territory to the next, so the service that carries a match in Lagos may not be the one that carries it in Nairobi or Johannesburg. Most fans in the five nations now follow on a phone or through a pay TV or streaming subscription, and the where to watch details beside each fixture are the place to check, since rights arrangements can change from one season to the next and a single listing rarely covers the whole continent.

If you follow a club from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya or Uganda through the competition, the simplest habit is to open the fixtures as soon as each round is drawn and convert every kick off into your own zone straight away. Add the second leg at the same moment as the first, because two legged ties are easy to lose track of when they fall a week or more apart, and set a reminder for any match that starts late in East Africa or early in Ghana, where the time difference bites hardest.