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Cape Town - Orlando Pirates defender Thabo Matlaba expressed shock at the recently released continental club ranking that placed the Buccaneers as only the 24th best club team in Africa.
Matlaba was baffled by the higher ranking received by rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, in fourth and 12th place respectively, despite neither side making much of an impact in any continental competition.
Despite reaching both the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup finals in the last three years, the Bucs were surprisingly not considered good enough to be considered inside the top 20 club teams in Africa, according to Football Database.
"I saw that and I couldn't believe it. Having said that, everyone knows what we have done on the continent over the last five years or so," Matlaba told Soccer Laduma.
"It just doesn't make sense but I don't know the criteria. Maybe if they explained the criteria it would be better.
"We have reached two continental cup finals in less than five years and none of the other two South African teams have reached the semi-finals of either the Champions League or the Confederation Cup in the last five years.
"Surely there are reasons Chiefs and Sundowns are ahead of us in the ratings, but the bottom line is that we've been doing better than both of them in recent years."
