| Tourney Name: | 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| Num Teams: | 51 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Matches: | 146 |
| Goals: | 348 |
| Top Scorer: | Odion Ighalo |
| Prevseason: | 2017 |
| Nextseason: | 2021 |
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the 32nd edition of the international men's football championship of Africa.[1]
As per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017, a total of 24 teams qualified to play in the final tournament.[2]
A total of 51 teams entered the tournament, including Cameroon which would have qualified automatically for the final tournament as the hosts before their hosting rights were stripped. The draw for the qualifications stage took place on 12 January 2017, 19:30 UTC+1, in Libreville, Gabon.[3]
For seeding, the teams were ranked using CAF's own system which were calculated based on the team's performance in the three most recent editions the Africa Cup of Nations final tournaments, the three most recent editions the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaigns, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup final tournament and qualifying campaign.[4]
The teams ranked 1–45 (Pots 1–4) directly entered the group stage, while the teams ranked 46–51 (Pot 5) entered the preliminary round.
| Pot | Rank | Team | Tournaments and weighting factor | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pot 1 | 1 | 8 | 24 | 3 | 6 | 1.5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 63.5 | |
| 2 | 8 | 18 | 4 | 8 | 1.5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 56.5 | ||
| 3 | 6 | 2 | 16 | 1.5 | 12 | 7 | 44.5 | ||||
| 4 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 12 | 7 | 43.5 | |||
| 5 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1.5 | 3 | 5 | 34.5 | |||
| 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 1.5 | 4 | 3 | 33.5 | |||
| 7 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 1.5 | 1 | 5 | 33.5 | |||
| 8 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 1.5 | 2 | 29.5 | ||||
| 9 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 29 | ||||
| 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1.5 | 8 | 3 | 26.5 | |||
| 11 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 1.5 | 3 | 26.5 | ||||
| 12 | 8 | 6 | 3o | 1 | 1 | 5 | 24 | ||||
| Pot 2 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 22 | |||
| 14 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 22 | ||||
| 15 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 0.5 | 3 | 21.5 | |||||
| 16 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 21 | |||||
| 17 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 20 | |||||
| 18 | 8 | 4 | 1.5 | 2 | 3 | 18.5 | |||||
| 19 | 8 | 2 | 0.5 | 5 | 15.5 | ||||||
| 20 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1.5 | 5 | 15.5 | |||||
| 21 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1.5 | 1 | 15.5 | |||||
| 22 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 13.5 | ||||
| 23 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 12 | ||||||
| 24 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||||||
| Pot 3 | 25 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||||||
| 26 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | ||||||
| 27 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||||
| 28 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 | 8.5 | ||||
| 29 | 6 | 0.5 | 2 | 8.5 | |||||||
| 30 | 8 | 0.5 | 8.5 | ||||||||
| 31 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | ||||||
| 32 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | |||||
| 33 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||||||
| 34 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |||||||
| 35 | 4 | 0.5 | 2 | 6.5 | |||||||
| 36 | 6 | 0.5 | 6.5 | ||||||||
| Pot 4 | 37 | 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 38 | 6 | 6 | |||||||||
| 39 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| 40 | 4 | 0.5 | 1 | 5.5 | |||||||
| 41 | 4 | 0.5 | 1 | 5.5 | |||||||
| 42 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||
| 43 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 4.5 | |||||||
| 44 | 4 | 0.5 | 4.5 | ||||||||
| 45 | 2 | 0.5 | 1 | 3.5 | |||||||
| Pot 5 | 46 | 2 | 0.5 | 2.5 | |||||||
| 47 | 2 | 0.5 | 2.5 | ||||||||
| 48 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 49 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 50 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 51 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| No Pot | 52 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||||||
| 53 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 54 | 0 | ||||||||||
The nine teams from Pot 4 were drawn in Groups D to L, while the twelve teams from each of the Pots 3, 2 and 1 were drawn in Groups A to L. Then, the six teams from Pot 5 were drawn into three pairings, which would play in the preliminary round. The three winners would advance to Groups A, B and C of the group stage.[5]
The schedule of the qualifying tournament was as follows.
| Round | Matchday | Dates | Matches | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original dates[6] | Revised dates[7] | ||||
| Preliminary round | First leg | align=center colspan=2 rowspan=2 | 20–28 March 2017 | Team 1 vs. Team 2 | |
| Second leg | Team 2 vs. Team 1 | ||||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | align=center colspan=2 | 5–13 June 2017 | Team 1 vs. Team 2; Team 3 vs. Team 4 | |
| Matchday 2 | 19–27 March 2018 | 3–11 September 2018 | Team 2 vs. Team 3; Team 4 vs. Team 1 | ||
| Matchday 3 | align=center rowspan=2 | 3–11 September 2018 | align=center rowspan=2 | 8–16 October 2018 | Team 1 vs. Team 3; Team 2 vs. Team 4 |
| Matchday 4 | Team 3 vs. Team 1; Team 4 vs. Team 2 | ||||
| Matchday 5 | 8–16 October 2018 | 12–20 November 2018 | Team 2 vs. Team 1; Team 4 vs. Team 3 | ||
| Matchday 6 | 5–13 November 2018 | 18–26 March 2019 | Team 3 vs. Team 2; Team 1 vs. Team 4 | ||
Matchday 2 was postponed at the request of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualified teams so that they could play friendly matches in March 2018 to prepare for the World Cup.[8] [9]
See main article: article and 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round.
The six teams were drawn into three ties, played in home-and-away two-legged format. The three winners advanced to the group stage to join the 45 teams which entered directly.
The 48 teams were drawn into 12 groups of four teams (from Group A to Group L). They consisted of the 45 teams which entered directly, plus the three winners of the preliminary round whose identity was not known at the time of the draw.
The original host Cameroon was drawn into Group B. With the team guaranteed a spot in the finals regardless of its ranking in the group, its matches would have counted in determining the qualification of the other teams.
All group winners plus three best runners-up would have qualified for the finals. From Group B, if Cameroon had finished first or second, the other team placed in the top 2 would have qualified too and no other team would have been eligible to qualify, while if Cameroon had finished third or fourth, the group winner would have qualified and the runner-up would have been eligible to qualify as one of the three best runners-up.[5]
On 20 July 2017, when the first round of the qualifying group stage had already been played, the final tournament was expanded from 16 to 24 teams. Under the new format, the best-placed team other than Cameroon would have qualified from Group B, while the group winners and runners-up would have qualified from all other groups.
On 30 November 2018 Cameroon was stripped of the hosting rights. The team lost its automatic spot for the finals but still could qualify through the qualification process, which it eventually did. On 8 January 2019 Egypt was named as the replacement host. As at that point Egypt had already been assured of a top 2 finish in Group J, the winners and runners-up from all qualification groups would now qualify for the final tournament.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group A.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group B.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group C.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group D.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group E.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group F.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group G.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group H.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group I.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group J.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group K.
See main article: 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group L.
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.
1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.