Mamelodi Sundowns will not feature in this season’s CAF Champions League after being eliminated in the second preliminary round by Angolan club Wiliete.
The South African side’s defeat is expected to rank among the competition’s biggest absences, ending a run of 10 consecutive appearances in the CAF Champions League.
Mamelodi Sundowns were held to a goalless draw in the first leg before Wiliete scored an equaliser at Loftus Versfeld. The Angolan club’s away goal proved decisive, sending them through and causing a major upset in African football.
It is only in recent years that a defending champion has failed to reach the group stage of the competition. Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia, Al Ahly of Egypt and Raja Casablanca of Morocco have previously suffered the same fate.
Mamelodi Sundowns now join that list of former winners. The club, African champions in 2016 and 2026, had also reached the final in each of the past two seasons.
Their elimination therefore brings an abrupt end to a sustained period of continental success and leaves the CAF Champions League without one of its most regular participants this season.