| Tourney Name: | 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round |
| Num Teams: | 8 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Matches: | 8 |
| Goals: | 15 |
| Top Scorer: | Sabelo Ndzinisa Mohamed Awad (2 goals each) |
| Prevseason: | 2023 |
| Nextseason: | 2027 |
The preliminary round of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification tournament decided the four teams which advanced to the group stage of the qualification tournament. The preliminary round consisted of the eight lowest-ranked teams among the 52 entrants, and was held from 20 to 26 March 2024.
The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.[1] The four winners: Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan advanced to the group stage to join the 44 teams which entered directly.[2]
The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The eight involved national teams were seeded into two pots of four based on the FIFA World Rankings from 15 February 2024 (shown in parentheses).[3]
Seychelles (199) and Eritrea (unranked) were excluded from the qualifiers.
The teams in bold qualified for the qualifying group stage.
| width=50% | Pot 1 | width=50% | Pot 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| (149) (152) (166) (177) | (181) (191) (192) (198) |
The first legs were played on 20 and 22 March, and the second legs were played on 26 March 2024.[4] [5]
Eswatini won 5–2 on aggregate.----1–1 on aggregate. South Sudan won on away goals.----Chad won 3–1 on aggregate.----Liberia won 2–0 on aggregate.