Tourney Name: | 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
Num Teams: | 52 |
Confederations: | 1 |
Matches: | 8 |
Goals: | 15 |
Prevseason: | 2023 |
Nextseason: | 2027 |
Updated: | 26 March 2024 |
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches are organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the 35th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. The qualification 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, October and November, all in 2024. A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically-qualified hosts Morocco.
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.
Participating in preliminary round | ||
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The schedule of the qualifying tournament is as follows.[2]
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 October 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 |
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round.
The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.[3]
The group stage draw took place on 4 July 2024 at 2:30 pm (UTC+2) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each, which consisted of the 44 teams that entered directly, in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round, and were seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the June 2024 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses).[4] [5]
width=25% | Pot 1 | width=25% | Pot 2 | width=25% | Pot 3 | width=25% | Pot 4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(12; hosts) (18) (36) (37) (38) (41) (44) (49) (50) (59) (61) (64) | (65) (67) (77) (83) (89) (90) (91) (92) (94) (97) (103) (104) | (108) (112) (113) (114) (115) (118) (119) (120) (121) (122) (125) (127) | (128) (129) (131) (132) (140) (142) (143) (145) (149) (154) (167) (178) |
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):
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group A.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group B.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group C.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group D.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group E.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group F.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group G.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group H.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group I.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group J.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group K.
See main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group L.
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
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.