The AFCON draw took place on Thursday evening at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, with African football icons, Kanu Nwankwo, Samuel Eto’o, Khalilou Fadiga, Geremi Njitap, El Hadji Diouf and Jose Clayton in attendance.
CAF Deputy General Secretary of Football and Development, Anthony Baffoe, was in charge of proceedings and he was assisted by Algerian football great, Rabah Madjer, Eto’o and Nigeria’s Kanu.
The 48 teams were drawn into 12 groups of four teams in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round.
In Group A, Mali will join Guinea, Namibia and the winner between Liberia and Chad for size, while Group B has Burkina Faso, Uganda, Malawi and Djibouti/Gambia. AFCON 2019 quarter-finalists, South Africa, will have their hands full in Group C against Ghana and Sudan. AFCON 2019 host, Egypt, have been paired with Kenya, Togo and Comoros Island. While Togo and Comoros Island couldn’t reach the 2019 Nations Cup, Kenya made the trip to Egypt but couldn’t go farther than the group stage.
Host Cameroon will participate in the qualifiers even though the team is guaranteed a spot in the finals regardless of its ranking in the group. Their matches and results will count in determining the qualification of the other teams from their groups, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Rwanda.
Preliminary round of the qualifiers will be played in October 2019, while the group stage will kick off in November and will end in November 2020. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Finals of the 33rd edition except Group F, where Cameroon automatically qualify as hosts with highest placed of other three teams.
Below is the full AFCON draw:
Group A – Mali, Guinea, Namibia, Liberia/Chad
Group B – Uganda, Malawi, Burkina Faso, South Sudan/Seychelles.
Group C – South Africa, Sudan, Ghana, Mauritius/Sao Tome.
Group D – Gabon, Angola, DR Congo, Djibouti/Gambia.
Group E – Mauritania, Central African Republic, Morocco, Burundi.
Group F – Mozambique, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Rwanda.
Group G – Egypt, Kenya, Togo, Comoros Island.
Group H – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Algeria, Botswana
Group I – Guinea Bissau, Congo, Senegal, Eswatini.
Group J – Tanzania, Libya, Tunis, Equatorial Guinea.
Group K – Madagascar, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia.
Group L – Sierra Leone, Benin, Nigeria, Lesotho.
