If the celebrations by fans after the final whistle in Uganda’s 4-0 mauling of Congo Brazzaville yesterday in the 2013 AFCON qualifiers is to go by, many thought The Cranes had finally qualified for Africa’s biggest
show piece for the first time in 34 years.
Many even went ahead to post their feelings on Twitter and Facebook to exhibit their happiness about it. Following this, i felt concerned and decided to tell Ugandans that the jinx is yet to broken.
I have gone further to explain this edition’s qualifying procedure so that we can all understand it. Let’s get started.
Two years back, Confederation of African Football (CAF) Africa’s soccer governing body decided to change the Nations Cup tournament from an even to an odd year.
This was meant to avoid collision with the World Cup that is played in even years and give Africa’s representatives ample time for preparation. In doing so, they changed the qualification format for 2013 from group phases to merely knock out rounds played on home and away basis. THE PROCEDURE: Africa has 54 countries all vying for 16 slots but some decided not to participate.
CAF set preliminary stages for lowest ranked nations that included Sao Tome, Lesotho, Swaziland and Seychelles.
From this, Sao Tome and Seychelles qualified to join the 26 nations that never qualified for AFCON 2012 to make 28 to play each other in the first round of qualifiers.
Out of the 28 teams in the first round, the 14 winners will join the 16 teams that played in AFCON 2012 in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. This will make it 30 teams to be drawn for the final round to be played on 7-9 September (first leg) and 12-14 October (second leg).
The 15 winners over two legs will join hosts South Africa who is the only side to have qualified at the moment. So far eight nations Uganda, Malawi, Cameroun, Algeria, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cape Verde have qualified for the final round and by the end of this weekend, the 14 will be known. The draws for the next round are set for next month in Johannesburg.
