CAF Holds 2027 AFCON Preliminary Qualifiers Draw Today

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will today conduct the preliminary round draw for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers in Rabat, Morocco, officially kicking off the race to the tournament.

Twelve of Africa’s lowest-ranked national teams have been placed into two pots for the preliminary stage, with six higher-ranked sides set to be paired against six lower-ranked opponents. The ties will be played over two legs, and the winners will progress to the group stage alongside Africa’s top 42 nations.

Teams in Pot 1 include Lesotho, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, South Sudan, and Mauritius, while Pot 2 features Chad, São Tomé & Príncipe, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, and Eritrea.

The six victorious sides will advance to join higher-ranked teams in the AFCON 2027 qualifiers, keeping alive their hopes of reaching the continent’s premier football tournament, which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Nigeria, as one of Africa’s top-ranked teams, will enter directly at the group stage and is not involved in today’s preliminary draw.