The road to the 35th edition of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025 begins this Tuesday with a preliminary draw at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
The draw will include the lowest the eight (8) lowest-ranked teams according to the latest FIFA ranking and these are CECAFA nations Somalia, Djibouti and South Sudan as well Sao Tome, Chad, Mauritius, Liberia and Eswatini.
The matches will be played on home and away basis during the FIFA Window of 18-26 March 2024. The four (4) preliminary round winners will join the 44 exempted teams for the group stage who include among others Uganda.
Draw procedures of the preliminary round of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025
Engaged teams: 52 teams engaged in the next Africa Cup of Nations.
- The less 8 ranked teams in the FIFA ranking will play the preliminary round and the remaining 44 teams will be exempted and will play directly in the group stage.
- System of the qualifiers: Preliminary round: Knock out system from home and away matches for the less 8 qualified teams in the FIFA ranking. Group stage: the 4 winners of the preliminary round in addition to the 44 exempted teams will play the group stage.
- III. Draw procedures of the preliminary round: The less 8 ranked teams are distributed into 2 pots according to their ranking: 4 lowest ranked among the 8 teams: Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome & Chad 4 highest ranked among the 8 teams: Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia & Eswatini
The 1st ball drawn from pot 1 will play against the 1st ball drawn from Pot 2 and the teams of Pot 1 will play the 1st leg at home. The same process will be repeated for the remaining teams in pot 1 & 2
