The two Egyptian clubs, holders Sundowns and Tunisian club Etoile du Sahel are all seeded based according to CAF’s five year club ranking system.

Al Ahly and Zamalek are the two most successful clubs in the Champions League, having won it 13 times between themselves.

From all the teams through to the Champions League group stages this year, Al Ahly is the top-seeded club on 45 points followed by their fellow Egyptian side Zamalek (36), Etoile du Sahel (31) and then Sundowns (25).

In Pot B is Al Hilal of Sudan (20), Tunisia’s Esperance (20), Wydad Casablanca of Morocco (16) and USM Alger of Algeria (16).

The third pot has Sudanese giants Al Merrikh (14), Coton Sport of Cameroon (12), DR Congo giants AS Vita Club (12) and Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya (5).

The bottom pot contains St George of Ethiopia (2) while Mozambique outfit Ferroviario Beira, ZANACO of Zambia and Zimbabwean club CAPS United have gained no points in the period under consideration stretching over the past five years.

Points gained are weighted according to the year of the results on a decreasing scale of 5 to 1 with the most recent year fixed at five.

The Brazilians’ 25 points is based on being Champions League winners last year, garnering five points which were is multiplied by the coefficient of 5.

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Winning the Champions League is worth five points while lifting the Confederation Cup carries four points.

Though they are not playing continental football this year, Orlando Pirates have 20 points gained from being the 2013 CAF Champions League runners-up (4 points multiplied by two) and also finishing second in the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup (three points multiplied by four).

When the group stages draw is done – likely to be next month after the Confederation Cup play-offs round – each pool will have one team from each pot meaning, Sundowns cannot meet any of the teams in their pot.

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Teams in any of the other pots cannot also be drawn together for the group stages matches played from May 12 on a home and away basis all the way to July 9.

So Sundowns can possibly find themselves in the same group as Al Hilal, Coto Sport and Ferroviario Beira or Esperance, AS Vita and CAPS United.

This year all the teams that have reached the expanded Champions League are guaranteed of at least US$550 000 (R6.9 million).

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