Mamelodi Sundowns FC

The 2025-26 final is two-legged. Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria hosts the first leg on Sunday 17 May 2026 (the original 15 May date was pushed back 48 hours after a Sundowns request). Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat hosts the decisive second leg on Sunday 24 May 2026, kicking off 20:00 Morocco time. The winner pockets USD 6 million, a 50 percent increase over the previous winners' purse following the prize-money overhaul announced by CAF in March 2026.

Sundowns reached the final by beating Nigerian champions Remo Stars 7-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 (5-1 away in Abeokuta, 2-0 home), then Stade Malien in the quarter-finals after a 3-0 first leg at Loftus, before edging Esperance de Tunis 2-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals via two 1-0 wins, the third meeting between the clubs in the knockout phase in three consecutive seasons.

AS FAR are the Royal Armed Forces club from Rabat. They eliminated Pyramids FC and RS Berkane on the way to the final and arrive defending the home advantage Sundowns surrendered against Pyramids twelve months ago. A win in Rabat ties the all-time CAF Champions League count between South Africa and Morocco at the same total.

Eight in a row: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25. The 2024-25 title was wrapped up with five matches still to play, an 18-point gap over runners-up Orlando Pirates. The 2021-22 unbeaten run extended to 71 matches across all competitions, the longest such streak in PSL history and the second-longest unbeaten run in any African top flight.

Domestic title number 16 is in sight in 2025-26 but the league is tighter. The CAF Champions League run forced a fixture pile-up of seven Premier Soccer League games in the 21 days following the final's second leg. The squad's depth gets stress-tested in May. Williams in goal, Mokoena and Modiba in midfield, Lucas Ribeiro and Iqraam Rayners up front carry the bulk of the load while Cardoso rotates the second XI to defend the league position.

Patrice Motsepe is South Africa's first black billionaire, founder of African Rainbow Minerals, and since March 2021 the president of the Confederation of African Football. The Sundowns ownership and the CAF presidency in the same family means the club's continental footprint, prize-money advocacy and domestic broadcast deals all sit close to the centre of African football administration.

On the pitch the club's identity is the 'Brazilian Way': yellow and blue colours that match the Brazil national team, possession-first football, and a long line of South American technical hires. Pitso Mosimane (2012-2020) installed the framework. Manqoba Mngqithi and Rulani Mokwena maintained it. Manuel Cardoso (Portugal), appointed in December 2024 according to Wikipedia, is the current head coach charged with delivering the second CAF Champions League and a ninth straight league title.

Loftus is the South African football venue with the largest big-match attendances outside Johannesburg's FNB Stadium. CAF Champions League matchdays routinely draw 40,000-plus and the 2024-25 first-leg final vs Pyramids set a Loftus football attendance record. The pitch is well-drained, the floodlights are CAF-graded, and the location matters: Pretoria nights are colder than Johannesburg in May, and the altitude (1,338 metres) is a documented disadvantage for visiting North African opposition arriving from sea-level Tunis or Cairo.

Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville (28,900 capacity) is the secondary venue, used for selected league fixtures and CAF group-stage matches when Loftus is occupied by Bulls rugby.