The draw for the qualifiers will take place during the 2021 tournament in Cameroun.
The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draw will be conducted on 21 January 2022 in Douala, Cameroon.
The preliminary round will be played by a knock-out system: home and away matches and will include the lower ranked teams in accordance with the FIFA rankings.
The teams qualified from this round will reach the group stage composed of 48 teams.
Remarkable to see Somalia in the draw. They haven't participated since the 1988 qualifiers. The last time Eritrea took part was in the 2008 tournament.
I wouldn't be surprised if both would withdraw before the competition begins.
I completely missed the preliminary round being played here in the March window.
Eritrea withdrew which gave Botswana a free ride to the next round.
Africa's two worst teams, Djibouti and Somalia, lost heavily 2-5 and 1-5 agg to South Sudan and Eswatini respectively.
The other ties were tighter. São Tomé and Príncipe won the island battles against Mauritius 4-3, Lesotho beat Seychelles 3-1 and Gambia beat Chad 3-2.
The draw for the group stage of qualifying will be held this Tuesday 17.30 in Johannesburg.
The seeding should be based on the FIFA ranking, and therefore as follows:
Pot 1: Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, DR Congo Pot 2: South Africa, Cape Verde, Guinea, Gabon, Benin, Uganda, Zambia, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Kenya, Sierra Leone Pot 3: Namibia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Libya, Mozambique, Malawi, Togo, Zimbabwe, Gambia, Angola, Comoros Pot 4: Tanzania, Central African Republic, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Liberia, South Sudan, São Tomé and Príncipe
Since the hosts are included, it should be the case that if they do not finish in top 2, the worst-ranked team among the group runners-up will not qualify for the final tournament.
Diouf wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 18:03
The 2023 tournament will be held in Ivory Coast.
The draw for the qualifiers will take place during the 2021 tournament in Cameroun.
The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draw will be conducted on 21 January 2022 in Douala, Cameroon.
The preliminary round will be played by a knock-out system: home and away matches and will include the lower ranked teams in accordance with the FIFA rankings.
The teams qualified from this round will reach the group stage composed of 48 teams.
Even though it's in 2024 think it best that we keep it as 2023 to pervert confusion as per official name and precedent (Euro 2020, AFCON 2021, CHAN 2022 ETC.
