CAF has confirmed that the draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will be held in South Africa later this week.
Following some delays, it was announced last month that the 2025 AFCON, which will be staged in Morocco, will take place from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026.
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It will thus be the first edition of the tournament to be held in the December period, with the dates having been revised to accommodate the inaugural 32-team 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, which will take place in June and July next year.
Nevertheless, preparation for the 35th edition of the AFCON are now underway, with CAF have confirmed that the qualifying draw for the flagship tournament will take place in Johannesburg on Thursday, 4 July, at 14:30 (SA time), as per CAFOnline.
A total of 48 nations will drawn into 12 groups of four teams, with the two top sides in each group after the qualifying matches set to book their place in the 24-team showpiece in Morocco.
CAF has also confirmed that the 2023 AFCON-winning coach with Ivory Coast, Emerse Fae, will be one of the draw assistants for the draw later this week.
— CAF Media (@CAF_Media) July 2, 2024
The teams to be drawn at the AFCON 2025 Qualifiers Draw:
Morocco (hosts), Ivory Coast, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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