CAFonline reports that African clubs are racing to secure the remaining places at FIFA’s new 32-team Club World Cup tournament, the Mundial de Clubes FIFA, which will debut in the United States in 2025.

Recent TotalEnergies CAF Champions League winners Al Ahly of Egypt and Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca have claimed two of the continent’s four qualification spots.

Al Ahly booked their ticket by winning the 2022/23 editions of Africa’s premier club competition.

Wydad, meanwhile, qualified after their 2021/22 Champions League triumph under the tutelage of history-making coach Walid Regragui.

The two remaining African berths will go to the winners of the current 2023/24 Champions League campaign and the highest-ranked side based on FIFA’s club coefficient rankings.

South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and Esperance of Tunisia are the only two clubs still in contention to claim that rankings spot should Ahly win this season’s TotalEnergies CAF Champions League.

But they will have to wait to see who lifts the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League trophy, with Al Ahly safely through to the quarter-finals again.

Whatever happens, African football can look forward to a strong quartet of representatives at the inaugural Mundial de Clubes FIFA in just over a year.