The seedings for Tuesday’s 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers draw have been revealed, with 48 countries being divided into four levels for the composition of the groups.
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There will be 12 qualifying groups with four teams each, and the top two from each group will advance to the 24-team finals, which are being played from June 10 to July 17 next year.
But with three co-hosts in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda – Tuesday’s draw will be more complicated as the three countries are also participating in the preliminaries, even though they are guaranteed a berth at the finals.
Therefore, the first and second-placed team in each of the nine groups not containing a co-host qualifies for the finals. In the three groups in which the co-hosts will compete, the highest finisher that is not one of Kenya, Tanzania, or Uganda will qualify.
For Tuesday’s draw, which will be conducted in Cairo, it has also been ruled by the Confederation of African Football that three co-hosts must be placed in separate groups.
The pot allocation for the draw has been determined by the latest Fifa rankings, which were issued on April 1.
The pots for the draw will be:
Level 1: Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Cameroon, DR Congo, Mali, South Africa, Burkina Faso
Level 2: Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Gabon, Uganda, Angola, Benin, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros
Level 3: Kenya, Libya, Tanzania, Niger, Mauritania, Gambia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Togo, Malawi, Rwanda
Level 4: Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Congo, Central African Republic, Liberia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Botswana, South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia.
The draw will start with the placement of the 12 Level 4 teams and then work its way to finally placing the Level 1 teams, meaning a long wait for top-seeded nations to find out who they will be up against.
The qualifiers will be played over three match windows from September 21 to October 6 and November 9-17 this year, and then March 22-30 next year. Two qualifying matches per team will be played in each window.