AFCON Qualifiers 2023

The 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) is scheduled to be held in Ivory Coast in January and February 2024. The football tournament is normally held in the January and February of the competition year, but it was postponed to summer due to the just concluded World Cup held during November and December of 2022.

But due to the high temperatures during the summer in Ivory Coast, the tournament was further postponed to the January and February of 2024. 24 teams will compete in the 2023 AFCON competition, and it is the first time this number of teams are playing. Before the final 24 teams are selected and put in their different groups, the teams have to play the AFCON qualifiers. In this article, we go over the main event of the AFCON qualifiers and the stages already played.

How Does AFCON Qualification Work?

Before the main AFCON competition, there is a qualification to select the 24 teams that will play in the main tournament. The AFCON qualifiers are played over a series of matches, and at the end, the teams with the highest points become the teams contesting in addition to the host country, which automatically qualifies.

AFCON Qualifiers

Qualification Rounds

The qualification starts with a draw. This draw is to divide the 54 participating national football teams into two groups. The first group consists of the highest 42 teams in Africa, which went straight to the group qualifying stage.

The remaining 12 teams were set up to play each other in home and away matches to select the remaining 6 teams to join the other 43 teams in the AFCON qualifiers.

Preliminary Round

These 12 teams played the preliminary round with the following fixtures.

Team 1Team 21st leg2nd legFinal Score
Eritrea (withdrawn)Botswana N/AN/AN/A
Sao Tome and PrincipeMauritius 1-03-34-3
Djibouti South Sudan2-40-12-5
Seychelles Lesotho 0-01-31-3
Somalia Eswatini 0-31-21-5
Chad Gambia 0-12-22-3

The first leg of the matches took place between 23-24 March 2022, while the second leg took place between 27-29 March 2022. The teams in bold are those that qualified for the qualifying group stages.

For the first match, the match was forfeited by the Eritrea team, so the Botswana team qualified automatically. The other matches were played, and the winning team entered the qualifying group stage.

Group Stage

Before the group stage matches, the 48 teams were divided into 4 pots labelled pot 1 to pot 4 and contained 12 teams. The teams were shared according to their World ranking in March 2022.

The next part of the group stage was the draw on the 19th of April. The different teams were drawn from pots, starting from pot  4. Each team drawn entered the available group at the position of the pot number it was drawn from. The groups were filled alphabetically, so the draw started from A to L.

The host country, Ivory Coast, is part of the draw, even though they have automatic qualification. But they will play the qualification matches to decide the fate of the other three teams. So only the runners-up in their group will qualify.

Unfortunately, for these AFCON qualifiers, two countries, Kenya and Zimbabwe, were temporarily suspended before the qualifiers began. Even though these two countries were part of the draw, they would be allowed to play if the suspensions were lifted two weeks before the qualifying group stage matches began. It was not lifted, so they couldn’t play, and there were two groups with just 3 teams in the qualifiers.

Groups

Here are the different groups for the qualifying group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations 2023.

Group A

The teams in Group A for the Qualifying round include Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Sao Tome and Principe. Every team will play each other in a home-away round-robin format. After the first two matches, Nigeria leads the group with 6 points. After the final match, this group’s winner and runner-up will qualify for the AFCON competition.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Nigeria 26
2Guinea-Bissau24
3Sierra Leone21
4Sao Tome and Principe20

Group B

The teams in Group B include Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Eswatini, and Togo. After 2 matches, Burkina Faso tops the group with 6 points. After completing the group stage, the top team and the runner-up will compete in AFCON 2023.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Burkina Faso26
2Cape Verde23
3Eswatini 21
4Togo 21

Group C

Group C is the group with one of the disqualified teams, Kenya. So the remaining 3 teams in this group will struggle among themselves to get the top spot and runner-up to compete in the AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Cameroon23
2Burundi21
3Namibia 11
4KenyaDisqualified 0

Group D

The teams in Group D are Ethiopia, Malawi, Guinea and Egypt, all very formidable teams in their own right. As of this moment, after 2 matches, the spoils are shared, and each team has 3 points. Hopefully, there are clear winners by the end of this group stage.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Ethiopia23
2Malawi23
3Guinea23
4Egypt23

Group E

In Group E are Ghana, Angola, Central African Republic and Madagascar. There is stiff competition after 2 matches, with the top two teams sharing 4 points while the last two have 1 point apiece.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Ghana24
2Angola24
3Central African Republic21
4Madagascar 21

Group F

For Group F, the teams are Algeria, Niger, Tanzania, and Uganda. Algeria is finding the group easy, leading with 6 points after 2 matches. The runner-up position is all to fight for among the remaining 3 teams.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Algeria 26
2Niger22
3Tanzania21
4Uganda21

Group G

In Group G we have Mali, Congo, Gambia, and South Sudan. Even though Mali leads after two matches, there is still hope for the Congo and Gambia over the next 4 matches.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Mali 26
2Congo 23
3Gambia 23
4South Sudan20

Group H

Group H contains the host country Ivory Coast with Zambia, Comoros, and Lesotho. So these last 3 teams must compete to become the runner-up or the group leader if Ivory Coast slacks. We will see the results of their efforts after the last 4 matches.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Ivory Coast24
2Zambia23
3Comoros23
4Lesotho 21

Group I

In Group I, there is Mauritiana, Gabon, Sudan, and DR Congo. The difference among the top three teams is not clear yet, even though Mauritius leads by 4 points, but the next two teams are at 3 points each, placing pressure on the group leader.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Mauritiana24
2Gabon24
3Sudan23
4DR Congo20

Group J

In group J we see Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, and Botswana. Tunisia is showing their might early on with a 6-point lead, followed closely by Equatorial Guinea. The other two teams are lagging behind and will take a miracle to snatch the two top spots after the qualifying group stage ends.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Tunisia26
2Equatorial Guinea24
3Libya21
4Botswana20

Group K

Group K is the second group with a disqualified team, leaving the contest to the remaining 3 teams to get the winner and runner-up position so they can compete in the main AFCON tournament.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Morocco26
2South Africa20
3Liberia20
4ZimbabweDisqualified0

Group L

The final group in the AFCON qualifiers is Group L, with Senegal, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Benin. After 2 matches, Senegal leads the group with 6 points, and Mozambique is close by with 4 points. However, there is still so much to play for in the remaining 4 matches of the qualifying group stage.

PositionTeamPlayed Points 
1Senegal 26
2Mozambique24
3Rwanda21
4Benin 20

Conclusion 

To conclude this article about the AFCON qualifiers, we answer some questions concerning the tournament.

❓ Who will qualify for AFCON 2023?

The qualification matches are still ongoing, and it is still too early to know the teams that will advance beyond the qualifying group stage to the main competition. However, we know that Ivory Coast, as the host, has already qualified.

❓ How many teams qualify for AFCON?

24 teams qualify for AFCON.

❓ Did Uganda qualify for AFCON 2023?

No Uganda has not qualified for AFCON 2023 and is the last team in their group qualifiers. To qualify, the team needs to win at least 3 of the next 4 matches.

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