2025_Africa_Cup_of_Nations_qualification
2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
International football competition
Qualification for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations began with the preliminary round which ran from 21 to 26 March and will conclude with the group stage, which will be played in September and November, all in 2024. A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically-qualified hosts Morocco.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 20 March – 19 November 2024 |
| Teams | 52 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 8 |
| Goals scored | 15 (1.88 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
|
← 2023 2027 →
All statistics correct as of 26 March 2024. | |
All CAF member associations entered the competition, except Eritrea and Seychelles, who were excluded from the qualifiers. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 15 February 2024, with teams ranked 1st to 44th received a bye to the qualifying group stage, while the teams ranked 45th to 52nd had to participate in the preliminary round.[1]
The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[2]
| Bye to group stage | Participating in preliminary round |
|---|---|
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The schedule of the qualifying tournament is as follows.[4]
| Round | Matchday | Dates | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary round | First leg | 18–22 March 2024 | Team 1 vs. Team 2 |
| Second leg | 22–26 March 2024 | Team 2 vs. Team 1 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 2–10 September 2024 | Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4 |
| Matchday 2 | Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 4 vs. Team 1 | ||
| Matchday 3 | 7–15 September 2024 | Team 1 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 4 | |
| Matchday 4 | Team 3 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2 | ||
| Matchday 5 | 11–19 November 2024 | Team 2 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 3 | |
| Matchday 6 | Team 3 vs. Team 2, Team 1 vs. Team 4 |
The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.[2]
Draw
The date for the group stage's draw is yet to be announced by CAF. The 48 national teams involved will be divided into twelve groups of four each (from Group A to Group L), which will consist of the 44 teams that entered directly, in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round. The 48 national teams will be seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the most recent FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses) before the draw.
The following is a provisional seeding based on the FIFA World Rankings from April 2024, and may not represent the final seeding that will be used by CAF.[5]
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
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Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 14):
- Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above was reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
- Goal difference in all group matches;
- Goals scored in all group matches;
- Away goals scored in all group matches;
- Drawing of lots
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
Group K
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | K1 | K2 | K3 | K4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  TBD |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Final tournament | — | 2 Sep | 11 Sep | 15 Nov | |
| 2 | TBD |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 Nov | — | 6 Sep | 11 Sep | ||
| 3 | TBD |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 Sep | 15 Nov | — | 2 Sep | ||
| 4 | TBD |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 Sep | 15 Sep | 11 Nov | — |
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Group L
There have been 15 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 1 goal per match (as of 26 March 2024). Players highlighted in bold are still active in the competition.
2 goals
1 goal
Ousmane Hissein- Amine Hiver
- Mahamat Thiam
Justice Figuareido- Bongwa Matsebula
- Kwakhe Thwala
Jérémy Villeneuve
Oscar Dorley- Mohammed Sangare
Luís Leal
Data Elly
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1 |
|---|---|---|---|
 Morocco | Hosts | 27 September 2023 | 19 (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) |
- 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.
- "Draw for TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Preliminary Round set for Tuesday". CAFOnline.com. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- "TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Preliminary Draw conducted". CAFOnline.com. 20 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
- "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 15 February 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- Oyebola, Mike (25 December 2023). "CAF announces kick-off date for AFCON 2025 qualifiers". Daily Post Nigeria. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
- "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 4 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.