Draw Ceremony for AFCON 2025 in Morocco to Hold Today

The 52 countries aiming to pick qualification tickets to join hosts Morocco in the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will Tuesday know their routes to the next  edition of Africa’s football showpiece 

Losing finalists at the last edition in Cote d’Ivoire, Super Eagles of Nigeria and other top teams in the continent will not be in action in the preliminary round matches.

At the draw ceremony in Cairo, Egypt today (1:00pm Nigerian time), the last eight teams in the FIFA Ranking released last Thursday will know their opponents in the preliminary.

From the eight teams, only four will join the other 44 teams that will contest in the group stage from where the 23 teams will emerge to join Morocco.

The eight teams that will play in the preliminary round include; Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome, Chad, Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia and Eswatini.

The matches will be played on home and away basis during the FIFA Window of 18-26 March 2024. 

The eight teams will be divided into two with the top four consisting of Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia and  Eswatini in Pot 2. The last four – Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome and Chad will be in Pot 1.

The first ball drawn from Pot 1 will play against the first ball drawn from Pot 2 and the teams of Pot 1 will play the first leg at home. The same process will be repeated for the remaining teams in Pots 1 and 2.